Angel comics

The term Angel comics can refer to one of two closely related terms. It may refer to: In many cases these two terms overlap.
 * 1) Comics in which Angel is the main and/or title character.
 * 2) Comics based on the Angel television series, which a publishing company is allowed to create, because they have bought a license to do so from Twentieth Century Fox, who hold the intellectual property rights to Angel.

History
In October 1998 Dark Horse Comics published its first comic book based on the license for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the summer of 1999, before the Angel television series was created, Dark Horse Comics published a three-issue mini-series with Angel as the title character. In November 1999, a day after the sixth episode of Angel had aired, Dark Horse Comics published the first issue of a new ongoing series. This series lasted seventeen issues and was followed by a four-issue mini-series which was published over the course of nearly a year. After this, Dark Horse Comics decided not to renew the Angel license. Senior managing editor Scott Allie later described: "I've always regretted letting Angel go in the first place."

In 2005, after the Angel television series had already ended, IDW Publishing took up the rights to the Angel license and began publishing several mini-series and one-shots, some of which were set after the Angel series finale. The work of one of the writers of these mini-series, Brian Lynch, impressed Joss Whedon so much, that they collaborated on the a canonical seventeen-issue continuation of the television series, which disregarded the continuity of their previous continuations. IDW Publishing chose to continue this series beyond the initial seventeen issues, although the canonicity of these later issues is uncertain. Furthermore, several spin-off mini-series and one-shots were also created.

A conflict between writers and publishing companies arose over the use of the Angel character as the villain in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comics from Dark Horse Comics, which eventually led IDW Publishing to relinquish its license in 2011. Dark Horse Comics subsequently picked the license up again, bringing the both licenses back to the same publishing company. In 2011, Dark Horse Comics started publishing the twenty-issue Angel & Faith series, which ran parallel to Buffy Season Nine.

Main Series

 * "Angel (Dark Horse series)" [17 issues]
 * "Angel: After the Fall " (IDW) [17 issues]
 * "Angel: Aftermath " (IDW) [5 issues]
 * "After the Fall - Epilogue" (IDW) [5 issues]
 * "Angel: The End " (IDW) [18 issues]
 * "Angel & Faith Season Nine" (Dark Horse) [30 issues]
 * "Angel & Faith Season Ten" (Dark Horse [currently running]

Mini Series

 * "Angel: The Hollower " (Dark Horse) [3 issues]
 * "Long Night's Journey " (Dark Horse) [4 issues]
 * "Angel: The Curse " (IDW) [5 issues]
 * "Angel: Old Friends " (IDW) [5 issues]
 * "Angel: Auld Lang Syne " (IDW) [5 issues]
 * "Angel: Smile Time " (IDW) [3 issues]
 * "Angel: Not Fade Away " (IDW) [3 issues]
 * "Angel: Blood & Trenches " (IDW) [4 Issues]
 * "Angel: A Hole in the World " (IDW) [5 issues]
 * "Angel: Barbary Coast " (IDW) [3 issues]
 * Angel: Illyria - Haunted (IDW) [4 issues]
 * Angel: Only Human (IDW) [5 issues]

One-Shots (all from IDW)

 * Angel Spotlight: Illyria
 * Angel Spotlight: Gunn
 * Angel Spotlight: Wesley
 * Angel Spotlight: Doyle
 * Angel Spotlight: Connor
 * Angel: Masks
 * Angel vs. Frankenstein
 * Last Angel in Hell
 * Angel: Lorne
 * Angel vs. Frankenstein II
 * Angel Yearbook

Shorts

 * Point of Order
 * Lovely Dark and Deep
 * Angel
 * Numb (in Tales of the Vampires)