The only thing this comic is known for is the extreme skimpitude of the title character’s costume, and the fact that the comic’s cover was often a photo of a pinup model wearing the costume, rather than art of the story inside. So who better than exploitation veteran Jim Wynorski to bring the character to film?

Well, it could have been made by someone a lot better, it turns out. This was originally supposed to be made in the late seventies by Hammer Films, with Caroline Munro. But when she saw how much nudity they wanted her to do, she drop-kicked the role and they had to find someone else. They settled on Barbara Leigh, who was genuinely enthusiastic for the part, and wore the costume at conventions to promote the film. (The picture above is from Hammer’s poster.) But the only backers Hammer could find didn’t like her, and before they could sort out a working combination of money and talent, the studio went out of business. So the project went to Roger Corman, who hired Wynorski, who says it’s the one film he truly regrets making. “It was painful to even edit.”

They cast Talisa Soto, accent and all, and made the costume significantly more practical for her. Some other roles ended up with stunt-casted performers like Roger Daltrey as the villain, John Landis as an astronaut, Wynorski as a news anchor, a Forry Ackerman cameo (he created the character)... and a different actor playing someone named Forry Ackerman.