History Webcomic / SpyingWithLana

* Case #20: Enemies with Benefits
* Case #21: The Hero Position (in progress)

* HypocriticalHumor: Lana's fellow agent Sherri tends to treat her like an incompetent airheaded bimbo who's only abilities are getting men into bed. Considering that Sherri herself once got fired from an undercover position as a waitress due to incompetence because she couldn't stop dropping plates, this is more than a bit rich of her.

* MusclesAreMeaningless: Lana frequently triumphs over opponents who are more muscular than her, often with a combination of wits and ImprovisedWeapon. Lana is an athletic woman (as noted in the official description), but she does not have a muscular figure. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again, a muscular hooker or secretary might attract more unwanted attention...]]

* SurroundedByIdiots: Lana certainly feels this way. Her hyper-competence contrasts greatly with the general incompetence of her boss and many fellow agents.

* HypocriticalHumor: Lana's fellow agentf Sherri tends to look down Lana and treat her like an incompetent airheaded bimbo who's only abilities are getting men into bed. Considering that Sherri herself once couldn't even stay undercover as a waitress because she kept dropping plates and got fired (as a waitress) due to incompetence, this is more than a bit rich of her.

* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: During the story of [[spoiler:The Hero Position]], Lana's antagonist throws her into his private game reserve with intent to hunt her down. Lana immediately identifies the trope by name, and is very annoyed, because "every two-bit crackpot in the world" seems to be fixated with it; she regards it as contemptibly lame.

* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: During the story of [[spoiler:The Hero Position]], Lana's antagonist throws her into his private game reserve with intent to hunt her down. Lana immediately identifies the trope by name, and is very annoyed, because "every two bit crackpot in the world" seems to be fixated with it; she regards it as contemptibly lame.

* Case #20: Enemies with Benefits (in progress)

* HypocriticalHumor: Lana's fellow agent Sherri tends to look down Lana and treat her like an incompetent airheaded bimbo who's only abilities are getting men into bed. Considering that Sherri herself once couldn't even stay undercover as a waitress because she kept dropping plates and got fired (as a waitress) due to incompetence, this is more than a bit rich of her.

* BrainyBrunette: Lana is smart enough to quote Latin proverbs and Robert Frost's poetry [[note]]''Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'' in "Ring of Fire"[[/note]]. She is also able to think quickly on her feet. In "Flashbang!", at a costume party, she sees her target dressed up as [[Anime/DragonBallZ Vegetto]]. She then mentions Pan (another ''Dragon Ball'' character) and building a perfect-grade [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Qubeley]]. As expected, her target's attention is soon focused on her.

* ExcusePlot: Let's be honest; the plots are basically reasons to (a) get Lana naked (or close), (b) get Lana having sex, and (c) get Lana shooting at people, riding fast vehicles and blowing shit up. Often with at least two of the aforementioned happening simultaneously.

* ExcusePlot: Let's be honest; most of the plots are basically reasons to (a) get Lana naked (or close), (b) get Lana having sex, and (c) get Lana shooting at people, riding fast vehicles and blowing shit up. Often with at least two of the aforementioned happening simultaneously.

* EthicalSlut: Played with; Lana is frequently disgruntled that her job basically requires her to be "a hooker with security clearance", but given how frequently she resorts to sex to further her purposes or for leisure, she does appear to have a naturally high sex drive and enjoy sex in and of itself. Her objections seem to be more that the work isn't particularly fulfilling, the people's she's despatched to seduce are usually sleazy scumbags, and almost all of the people she finds herself working with are complete morons.

* EthicalSlut: Played with; Lana is frequently disgruntled that her job basically requires her to be "a hooker with security clearance", but given how frequently she resorts to sex to further her purposes or for leisure, she does appear to have a naturally high sex drive and enjoy sex in and of itself. Her objections seem to be more that the work isn't particularly fulfilling, the people's she's despatched to seduce are usually scumbags, and almost all of the people she finds herself working with are complete morons.

* DistractedByTheSexy: One of the main weapons in Lana's arsenal. Turns out, enemy operatives have a tendency to get a bit sidetracked when a beautiful large-breasted near-nude or nude brunette shows up in front of them.

* BusmansHoliday: In "Ring of Fire", the chief sends her on vacation to an island resort, which is then invaded by a revolutionary force which Lana must thwart singlehandedly. She accuses the chief of setting this up deliberately, but he denies it and realises he gave her teh wrong ticket and has had a combat team stationed in a five-star hotel in a riveria for several weeks.

* BusmansHoliday: In "Ring of Fire", the chief sends her on vacation to an island resort, which is then invaded by a revolutionary force which Lana must thwart singlehandedly. She accuses the chief of setting this up deliberately, but he denies it and realises he's had a combat team stationed in a five-star hotel in a riveria for several weeks.

''Spying With Lana'' is a comic series by Sean Harrington. It follows the adventures of the eponymous character, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin who is a spy]]. However, unlike most female spies (we think), Lana often disguises herself as a hooker or a SexySecretary (with emphasis on the sex part). Oh, and did we mention that she's a mean fighter, even (perhaps ''especially'') when she's naked?

* Case #6: Ring Of Fire (Lana goes on vacation, but ends up on an assignment.)

* Tricks Of The Trade (The chief's plans for a mission go bad, and Lana has to salvage the situation. Available as an ebook.)
* The Bang Bang Club (Lana goes on another EscortMission; bundled together with ''The Late Show'' for the ''Double Play'' ebook. The two stories are bundled together with ''Ring Of Fire'' and ''Grand Prix'' for the physical graphic novel ''Cinq à sept''. [[note]]"five to seven" in Quebec French[[/note]])
* Barely There (Lana encounters a case of MistakenIdentity. Bundled together with the first three cases for the physical graphic novel ''Year One'' and the ebook ''Year One Declassified'')

!!This series provides examples of:
* TheAce: Lana is the best her agency has to offer. Deconstructed in that her being the best in her agency meant that her talents are not fully utilised as her chief's incompetence limits her effectiveness as an agent.

* ArtEvolution: From ''Flashbang!'' onwards, the comics are in full colour. The first three comics are in black & white, with red if objects required it.

* BigWordShout: In ''The Cat's Meow'', when Lana's infatuated target Clodmir tells her that he loves her and asks her to marry him, Lana is...surprised and displeased.
-->'''Lana''': '''MARRY YOU?!!'''
* BikerBabe: Lana in ''Tricks Of The Trade'' and ''Second Skin''.
* BilingualBonus: In ''Tricks Of The Trade'', the man on Lana's escape yacht was singing parts of ''La donna è mobile'' (''The woman is fickle'' in Italian), the Duke of Mantua's canzone from the beginning of act 3 of Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Rigoletto''. Interestingly, while the song was an ironic one in the original play (the duke being the "fickle" one), it is appropriate here as Lana is indeed the "fickle woman".
** In ''Grand Prix'', Cliff uses ''casa'' ("house" in Spanish) to describe his room.
** In ''The Cat's Meow'', ''garcon'' ("boy" in French) is used to address a waiter. [[note]]Do not try this with the French. French waiters prefer "monsieur".[[/note]]
** In ''Second Skin'', one thug is named Paua. "Paua" is the Maori name for "abalone".

* BrainyBrunette: Lana is smart enough to quote Latin proverbs and Robert Frost's poetry [[note]]''Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'' in ''Ring Of Fire''[[/note]]. She is also able to think quickly on her feet.
** In ''Flashbang!'', at a costume party, she saw her target dressed up as [[Anime/DragonBallZ Vegetto]]. She then mentions Pan (another ''Dragon Ball'' character) and building a perfect-grade [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Qubeley]]. As expected, her target's attention was soon focused on her.
* BreastAttack: This is sometimes used on Lana. One example is the bomber in ''Object Of Desire''.

* CassandraTruth: One of the thugs in Case #10 correctly deduced that Lana was a spy. However, no one else believes him, and when he tries to take her out alone, he fails. Horribly.
* CatFight: Lana has had several female opponents. While the fights can get brutal, they are also quite sexual.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Lana herself, when another female character challenges her to a naked catfight, and Lana tells her that she has a black belt in naked catfighting.
* ClarkKenting: The bomber in ''Object of Desire'' disguises himself by wearing thick glasses. While the chief was fooled by it, Lana saw through the disguise right away. The TropeNamer is given a ShoutOut (The chief really does not know that Clark Kent is Superman).
* CloudCuckoolander: The archduke in ''Flashbang!'' [[spoiler:gave up firing the nuclear warhead because he didn't build a roof hatch for the missile to go through, and his office is right above the missile]].
* CombatPragmatist: Lana will pull every trick in the book to win a fight. Fighting naked to induce UnderestimatingBadassery is just one example.
** At one point, the guys she's trying to take down are interrupted by another bunch of guys who want to fight them. The two sides beat each other into unconsciousness and then Lana steps out of the cupboard she was hiding in and steals the thing that she was trying to steal all along.

* {{Crossover}}: ComicBook/{{Flare}} once joined Lana on a [[http://www.amazingartbros.com/LanaFlare2 case]].

* DeathGlare: Lana uses hers on her boss, after the ''Action Squad'' SNAFU:
-->'''Boss''': Great job! Another mission accomplished!
-->'''Lana''': [''Death Glare'']
-->'''Boss''': Yes, I know it didn't go as smoothly as it might have, but the important thing is that the prime minister's daughter is safe. He's not crazy about Mad Dog as a son-in-law, but hey, who likes their inlaws, right?
-->'''Lana''': [''Death Glare'']
-->'''Boss''': You know, I think you work well with a team! Sure, it was a little bumpy, but that's to be expected when you try something new.
-->'''Lana''': [''Death Glare'']
-->'''Boss''': All in all, I'd say this is a promising result, and I believe this can be beneficial to our agency, as well as to you personally!
-->'''Lana''': [''Death Glare. Pause.'']
-->'''Boss''': Okay, I'll fire the Action Squad.
-->'''Lana''': [''Death Glare''] Good.
* DrinkingOnDuty: Invoked by Lana when she dealt with a group of guards in ''Action Squad'' by throwing a [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy party]] for them. The alcohol was also spiked with sleeping pills.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In Cases #1 and #2, Lana either blew her cover or required the agency's help to bail her out. In subsequent cases, even if her cover was blown, she usually gets out of trouble by herself.
* EnragedByIdiocy: In ''The Cat's Meow'', once the contact (who's not at all bright) declared that he wants to marry Lana [[spoiler:as she had just saved him from an assassin]], Lana pulls off a rant and a ScrewThisImOuttaHere

* EskimosArentReal: Played with. In ''The Upside Down Case'', when Lana's partner asked who she was over the radio, she sarcastically replied that she was the Marquess of Queensberry. Turns out that the title is real [[note]]The 9th Marquess lent his name to a set of boxing rules[[/note]].
** A straight example would be in Case #10, where one suspicious henchman questioned her on medical terms like "systolic over diastolic". Lana teased him by claiming that he made those words up. In fact, that is indeed how you describe a person's blood pressure. (In this case, it's likely that Lana had a good grip of her audience's intelligence (i.e. not much) and decided to MindScrew the simpletons, knowing that they can't tell whether they had been lied to or not.)
* FakeBoobs: Lana has had breast implants, and her breast size is double D (both revealed in ''The Upside Down Case''). And they do get in the way from time to time.

* FlockOfWolves: Done to a ridiculous extent in Case #1. [[spoiler: Due to an enemy mole assigning agents to unimportant missions so that the important missions become undermanned, Lana soon realises that the group she has infiltrated consists ''only'' of her fellow agents.]]
* FriendlyEnemy: Lana has moments of this with people she's fighting (usually women), if there's some third party that they each find equally irritating. In ''The It Girl'', Lana and a Girl Mook are beating the crap out of each other while the woman Lana is meant to be protecting is squealing with terror in the background.
-->'''Girl Mook''': [''trying to put Lana in a chokehold''] That sound is driving me ''crazy''.
-->'''Lana''': [''resisting''] I know, it's like a dying cat or something.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Under extreme stress, Lana will use only mild swearwords. On being confronted by a mook pointing a gun at her face when she was (as usual) unarmed, she said "Oh poo." While riding a motorbike naked and being chased by a crime boss who was shouting "Shoot her! Shoot her!", she whacked him in the face with the steel briefcase she was holding, telling him "Oh hush."
* GroinAttack: Lana does this to the bomber in ''Object Of Desire''.

** In Case #1, Lana thought that her task of infiltrating a group was the important part of the mission. [[spoiler: As it turns out, the very fact that she was even assigned to a relatively unimportant mission was the crucial point.]]
** In ''Grand Prix'', Lana assumed that the data her team had retrieved was the important part of the mission. [[spoiler: The true aim of the mission was to discredit the person from whom the data was stolen.]]
* HelloNurse: Lana in Case #9.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Lana ''loves'' using objects to bash her opponents in the head.
** In ''The Cat's Meow'', she deconstructs the concept. Improvised weapons are truly effective only if the user is experienced with that style of fighting. When a call-girl tries to attack Lana with a chair, she easily subdues the call-girl.
* TheLoad: The lady being escorted in ''It Girl''.
* LustObject: Lana in ''Object of Desire'', to several fellows. All at the same time. Once again, the root cause is the chief's incompetence.

* TheManBehindTheMan: ''Everybody Loves Lana'' takes this to a ridiculous degree, crossing into [[spoiler:FlockOfWolves]] when "The Professor" turns out to be [[spoiler:Lana's boss.]]
* MeaningfulName: In ''Grand Prix'', Tawni (the enemy female agent) has tawny-coloured hair.

* MusclesAreMeaningless: Lana frequently triumphs over opponents who are more muscular than her, often with a combination of wits and ImprovisedWeapon.
** Lana is an athletic woman (as noted in the official description), but she does not have a muscular figure. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again, a muscular hooker or secretary might attract more unwanted attention...]]
* MuggingTheMonster: Call girls attacking a secret agent? Qualifies as this. Later, it becomes BullyingTheDragon as the same girls (still nursing their wounds from the first time) tried to mug Lana again. While they drew blood this time, Lana still handed them their asses.
** In ''Action Squad'', Lana herself went up against a thug who was much more muscular than she thought.
-->'''Lana''': The agency really needs to start getting full body pictures of people...

* NeverMyFault: ''Sweet Nothings''

* NoodleIncident: In ''The Morning After'', Lana's mission was this. From the henchmen's comments, lasers and a pie-eating contest were involved. Also, vintage rum was ruined and Lana did something to a killer baboon.

* PointyHairedBoss: Lana's boss is one, with his general incompetence and tendency to get Lana to do trivial things. That EscortMission Lana undertook in ''It Girl''? [[spoiler:All the other lady did was to sell the chief a laptop that he's not satisfied with.]]
** His screwup in ''Ring Of Fire'' costs Lana her vacation ''and'' throws her into an assignment which she's initially unprepared for.
** In ''The Late Show'', his inability to pronounce the name of the project he wants stolen caused Lana and her partner problems.

* RefugeInAudacity: In ''The Case of the Mixed-up Case'', the agency sends in a male replacement for Lana as she has blown her cover (and in the middle of a gun fight). The male agent called a literal time-out and basically wormed his way into the enemy's side, allowing Lana to escape.

** An aversion of the trope was actually used as a plot point in ''Grand Prix''. The sheer ridiculousness of two naked women fighting at the back of his car, along with other over-the-top factors (driving naked and crashing his car among them), meant that Cliff became a laughing stock, and subversive groups would never again entrust him with any work.
* SexForServices: In an unusual take on the trope, Lana ''will'' have sex with you if you've provided decent help to her, ''especially'' if you're a hot-looking stranger. Just ask the guys from ''Tricks Of The Trade'', ''It Guy'' and ''The Morning After''.

* ShaggyDogStory: In ''Quick n' Dirty'', Lana successfully retrieves the target prototype. Later back in HQ, the chief accidentally destroys it.
** In ''The Upside Down Case'', her involvement is this [[spoiler: as she was infiltrating the agency's own installation, thanks to faulty intelligence.]]

* SmartPeopleKnowLatin: In ''Flashbang!'', Lana quotes the Latin maxim "De gustibus non est disputandum" ("In matters of taste, there can be no disputes") [[note]]literally "about tastes, it must not be disputed/discussed"[[/note]].

* StatuesqueStunner: Lana is a ''very'' tall woman, sometimes nearly as tall as the men around her.
** Although the lady being escorted by her in ''It Girl'' claimed that she's "too short to be a showgirl". (Then again, this is a person whom Lana had to explicitly explain to that she's a secret agent.)
* SWATTeam: Parodied with the Action Squad, which "speaks entirely in jargon and swear words" and which can only go through doors by blowing them open.
** And which turns out to be completely useless, getting distracted by gas station snacks before storming the wrong compound. Lana is ''not'' pleased.

* UndyingLoyalty: Whether it is to her country or to the agency, Lana shows this when in ''Second Skin'', she raises the FridgeLogic to her boss on why she shouldn't join an enemy when he was treating her better than the chief (good intel, competent team and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking good sex]]).
* UniversalDriversLicense: Averted in ''The Morning After''. Both Lana and her partner had no idea how to drive a tank. While her partner managed to topple his tank, Lana fired off a lucky shot which destroyed an enemy tank, while trying to reverse the tank.

* UnreliableNarrator: In ''Sweet Nothings'', various employees recount to their boss how each of them got robbed of a crucial component. One of them, Karen, tells the story as though Lana attacked her and her "bodyguard" while they were having a "meeting" to discuss "security measures", and that she (Karen) had the situation under control, but we see that in fact she was in a bar, the "bodyguard" was her clueless boyfriend, and that Lana handed her ass to her on a plate before stealing her purse.
* TheUnreveal: In ''It Girl'', we never find out why the enemy agents are after Lana's target. Goes into FridgeLogic territory when the agency's reason for wanting her is revealed.
* UnwantedAssistance: The incompetence of her fellow agents means that Lana likes to work alone. ''The Upside Down Case'' is one example of such incompetence.
** To elaborate: In ''Grand Prix'', Lana once again teams up with Josh (her partner in ''The Upside Down Case''). When her shoulder was hit by his shot, she considers it ''an improvement''. ''The Upside Down Case'' has a flashback where Josh shot her in the torso.
** Averted in ''The Late Show'', where her partner is actually competent.
* UnwantedRescue: In ''Action Squad''. [[spoiler: The "kidnap victim" was never that. She was in love with the "kidnapper" from the start. It was the chief's faulty intelligence that caused the whole misunderstanding.]]

* Case #19: Everybody Loves Lana

* Case #18: Black Ops, White Lies

* Case #17: Best Served Hot

The comic is updated every Monday and can be read [[http://spyingwithlana.com/archive/ here]]. So far, 15 stories are available:

* Case #17: Best Served Hot (in progress)

* NeverMyFault: ''Sweeet Nothings''

* SituationalSexuality: Lana doesn't hesitate to have sex with her target's hot girlfriend if she thinks it's for the good of the mission.

* {{Badass}}: If you think Lana's only good for eye candy, you are in for a beating, or a verbal smackdown. If you're unlucky, you'll get both.