Fallen Angel (comics)

Fallen Angel
Cover to Fallen Angel (DC series) #4. Art by Brian Stelfreeze.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics (2003–2005) IDW Publishing (2005–2008)
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Main character(s)	Liandra
Creative team
Writer(s)	Peter David
Artist(s)	J. K. Woodward (IDW series)
Penciller(s)	David López (DC series)
Inker(s)	Fernando Blanco (DC series)
Colorist(s)	Nathan Eyring (DC series)
Creator(s)	Peter David & David López
Collected editions
Fallen Angel
Down To Earth
To Serve in Heaven
To Rule in Hell
Back in Noire
Heroine Addiction
Red Horse Riding
Cities of Light and Dark

Fallen Angel is an American fictional comic book heroine created and owned by writer Peter David and artist David López, who appears in her self-titled monthly series. It was published by DC Comics from July 2003 until it was canceled with issue #20 in May 2005 because of low sales. It resumed publication through IDW Publishing in December 2005, and ran for 33 issues. It has since been followed by two mini-series, Fallen Angel: Reborn and Fallen Angel: Return of the Son.

While not completely without humor, it is a very dark book with morally ambiguous characters. It was also one of the few "mature readers" books that DC published outside of its Vertigo imprint and was created to serve as a "bridge" between the general-audience DC titles and its Vertigo titles.

The first series was illustrated in the typical pen-and-ink method of the comic book industry by penciller David López and inker Fernando Blanco. The first five-issue arc of the second series was painted by J. K. Woodward, though both Woodward and guest artists have utilized the traditional pen-and-ink method since then.

Launched by DC comics in 2003, the book had reportedly low sales by its eleventh issue. When asked why this might be, Peter David suggested that the comics industry as a whole is intolerant of new ideas, and that a sizable segment of comic buyers prefer to wait for a monthly comic to be collected into trade paperbacks, driving down monthly sales.

In August 2004, in response to complaints that some retailers weren't stocking copies of Fallen Angel for interested fans to purchase, David announced that he would be producing a limited-edition autographed bookplate which could be attached to the Fallen Angel trade paperback, which he would send to both interested retailers and fans.

In January 2005, David confirmed that he had been told Fallen Angel would not continue past issue #20, despite a recent, reportedly successful, promotional effort. Sales on the title were reported to be around 11,000 copies—about 4000 short of what DC required for the title to be profitable.