Today's book has a plot point that might've worked when it came out, but I'm not sure does now: from 1980, Warlord #38, "The Shape of Things Gone By" Story and art by Mike Grell, inks by Vince Colletta.
Tooling around on his winged horse Firewing (which we saw some time back, he would lose next month, in Warlord #39!) Travis Morgan and Shakira travel far enough to see the terminator between Skartaris and the outer world. In fact, they can even see the outer world's sun; before they see a small boat from the surface world, under attack by the proverbial sea serpent! Travis literally leaps into action, stabbing it through the brain with the enchanted Hellfire Sword; then meets the survivors of the boat: Pat Chambers and Jennifer Morgan!
Jennifer's mother had been killed in a car accident, so Travis had sent her to live with an aunt, since "the Air Force was no life for a little girl." Travis had gone to Vietnam, and was later shot down and ended up in Skartaris; while a ten-year-old Jennifer was told her father was KIA...until three years ago, when a report came back that Travis had defected to the Russians! (A mis-reporting of a brief, and accidental, return to the surface in Warlord #6.) Jennifer is understandably upset to find her dad cavorting "around like some savage in a loincloth!" with an additional bit of side eye for Shakira.
Chambers has a bit more explanation: former CIA man Stryker had attempted to kill Travis and failed, but told anyone who would listen about Skartaris. A professor from Travis's trip to Russia approached Jennifer with information, and Chambers had arranged the expedition, but he and Jennifer were all that was left. Meanwhile, a sullen Shakira, who doesn't speak English, is getting tired of all the "monkey chatter."
Later, when the locals attack, Travis drives them off, but suggests Chambers get his Uzi. The locals return in greater numbers, since they think they're facing pirates; but are stopped by the sudden appearance of an old friend of Travis's, Aton. Who had been a young boy when Travis last saw him, but was now a full-grown adult! Time in Skartaris was occasionally localized, passing differently in different areas. (This wasn't seen often after this, I don't think.) Aton vouches for Travis, and Jennifer is cheered up a bit to see her dad hailed as a hero; although Travis still has to admit his mistakes to her.
Before they leave, Travis confronts Chambers: his gun, an Uzi, was at the time only used by the Israeli Army or the Secret Service. (That may not necessarily be true: per Wikipedia's Uzi entry, the Netherlands and Belgium were among several using it around that time. It would've been a somewhat exotic weapon to Travis, though.) Chambers was the latter, a friend of Stryker's out for revenge, but he had fallen in love with Jennifer on the trip. Shakira had the drop on Chambers if he had tried anything, anyway. Chambers and Jennifer set sail for the surface world, planning on telling the world Stryker had been wrong, Travis Morgan was dead, and there was no such place as Skartaris. In what was either a bit of commentary on current events, or foreshadowing for a much later story, Jennifer describes the surface world as "dying," but she wouldn't necessarily return there, either...
I had a battery-powered Uzi squirt gun in the mid-80's, and I associate the gun with that decade. Interesting to learn it was around long before that!
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