A TRIP DOWN REPRINT LANE-- JUNGLE FANTASY: VIXENS RETURN!

Opening page from my reprinted tale.

I discovered over the weekend that a story I wrote a good 14 years or so ago called "Jungle Vixens" for Avatar Press' Jungle Fantasy book with Al Rio was reprinted in a new Jungle Fantasy: Vixens book from Avatar's Boundless Comics imprint. 

Suspecting that I won't get a comp copy since I wasn't even informed the book was happening, I found via Facebook message from one of my publishers who thought it was something new I had done (which led to an interesting discussion). I picked up as copy of Jungle Fantasy Vixens at The Rock Shop on Sunday just to check it out and to have a copy on my bookshelf in my office. I mean, I did write it, after all.



Vixens was my 1st professional short story from back in the day, which means it was the first published short story that I was paid to write, which was pretty darn cool. The story was written for

Art: Al Rio

Jungle Fantasy #1 that came out in 2003 (I think - it was a long time ago and I am no good with remembering dates). I remember having fun writing this. It also marks the first time I wrote more adult fare, although I keep a lot of it innuendo, or as close as I could get.

The publisher had a character called Fauna, a woman who was on a space ship that exploded and she was able to escape tot he planet below, which resembled prehistoric earth, which meant dinosaurs were a major concern. I was tasked with coming up with a spin-off from Fauna and created the Jungle Vixens, Kit and Lani. They end up in an escape pod alone, dressed only in their animal print underwear (there's an in story reason for it, I swear). From there, they run afoul of dinosaurs, slavers/pirates, and a tribe of hunky neanderthals. Just another day for the Vixens. I also wrote 3 comic scripts featuring the characters, but they were not produced.

Art: Al Rio

The full page illustrations by the late, great Al Rio were obviously the big draw as I was a relative unknown at the time. I remember signing quite a few copies at conventions back int he early 2000's, mostly to women, which I remember thinking was odd at the time. I wrote several drafts of the story and one of my favorite pieces of editing notes came from this project. "There's too much story in this story." It still makes me smile.

Here's the original solicitation for the story in the original issue 1:
Introducing The Jungle Vixens by Bobby Nash and Al Rio.
When their starship orders all hands to evacuate Lani Mills and Kit Valtane leap into the closest escape pod with only the clothes on their backs, which isn’t much. Once planetside, they find themselves alone on a world filled with dinosaurs, barbarians, pirates, slavers, Amazons, and all manner of exotic beauty. Can they survive long enough to be rescued?

Art: Renato Camilo

My original jungle Vixens story is reprinted in the back of the new Jungle Fantasy: Vixens issue. I still love those Al Rio illustrations and seeing them in color for the first time was nice.

This one is an adult read with the sex 'n stuff. Definitely not for the kiddies. The rest of the book is new stories and a lot more adult (sex, nudity) than mine. Just an FYI if you seek it out. Since I wasn't involved with the new project, I don't know much about it and haven't looked up places selling it, but you should be able to find it on-line for ordering or at a comic book shop if you're interested.

It was definitely a trip into the fog of memory for me.

Bobby

Original 2003 cover. Art: Al Rio