I'm still chewing this notion over in my head, but I think traditionally, in girls' adventure stories--think Dorothy in the
Wizard of Oz, or Alice in Wonderland--in the fantastic journey to a far-off land, the heroine is triumphant, but wants nothing more than to get back home. Whereas guy adventure stories--John Carter, Travis Morgan to cherry-pick two that fit my theory!--the hero has maybe not yet met anybody there that didn't try to stab him at least once, but they're into it and are looking into a place there. Admittedly, if you live in America today you can probably see the allure of getting out and never coming back: if I could escape, what could possibly persuade me to return? I'm probably like Donald on this one: modern conveniences, friends, family, who cares? But they're selling off my comic collection? Oh,
hell no. From 1987,
Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures #1, "Donald Duck and Isabella" Written by Evert Geradts, US script by Byron Erickson, art by Ben Verhagen.
Donald and the nephews are running a ferry service, with the emphasis on service to the passengers, like a really fancy Lyft or whatever. A thief lifts a cash register and tries to get passage, but is dismayed at Donald's navigation of the deadly "
whirling dervish" whirlpool of Duckburg Channel, and when they pause to play some music for Isabella, a friendly music-loving whale. The crook wants to capture Isabella for a show; Donald refuses and get clonked on the head: he and the boys are left in a life raft, to get sucked into the whirlpool, crashing to the bottom of the sea...where, unexpectedly, they're rescued?
With brief periods of air when the whirlpool hit, there was a small society down there, made up of survivors from assorted shipwrecks over the years. They had indoor gardens, a hospital, a desalination plant, and to the boys' dismay, a school. Donald is becoming sold, though: fresh air, no taxes...the boys point out, what about Daisy? And his house, his car, his comic books? Gladstone and Uncle Scrooge were probably moving in on both sides there; even though Donald had been gone about twenty minutes. The undersea party is interrupted by Isabella, who doesn't like it when the music stops; then for helping them with their whale problem, the undersea folks help Donald seal his boat up airtight, for a trip back to the surface.
Getting back to Duckburg, the Ducks catch up to the crook, who tries to shift the blame by framing them for stealing his flea circus. Isabella then comes up, and a dancing whale doesn't help lend credence to the crook's story, and he's brought in. Donald and the boys decide to keep the undersea people a secret, since they think no one would believe them.
Again, Donald wasn't even gone much longer than maybe his regular shift; but I'm still positive Gladstone was moving in on Daisy all the same. Scrooge probably didn't sell Donald's comics, if only because I could see him not knowing what comics could be worth. Then getting way to into investing in them, then getting rug-pulled, then maybe actually reading one and deciding that was the way to go.
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