Frank Thorne’s battling beauties show a progression from Red Sonja, to Ghita, to Lann, and in many ways the qualities of that progression are sexual rather than heroic. Sonja is an independent warrior woman,  beautiful but chaste; Ghita is an equally beautiful warrior woman, but as a whore gifted with the aspects of a warrior magically she has sexuality built into her life. Lann, however, also beautiful and a warrior by profession, lives in an era where sexuality is an aspect of life regarded as natural and free from any societal inhibitions.

There is a progression in Thorne’s stories from Sonja with no sex, through Ghita with lots of sex, but treated with reserve and a fair amount of artistic restraint, to Lann, where the story lines are tailored to get Lann out of her clothes as much as possible. The actual sex is treated simply as one of the most normal things in the world.

Lann is a buxom mercenary with the body of a 25-year-old. She has a middle-aged lover called Shard, and the two of them travel through the universe with hunky but brainless android Glitch, who Lann uses when Shard isn’t enough. They are on a mission to rescue two go-go dancers from the planet Neon-Six who have been kidnapped, and the action follows them through galactic brothels, naked women with rayguns, robots and lizards.

In many ways Lann is clearly a typical male fantasy – the mature, experienced woman in the body of a busty nymphomaniac. But it isn’t quite as sexist as you might think, as Lann is pretty independent and kickass.

Lann was first published in Heavy Metal magazine, and then collected in a single volume by Eros Comix.