The second Basil story from Basil the Royal Cat #1 (January 1953) starts off rather innocently. When the royal kitchen is out of fish, Basil decides it would be fun if he goes fishing himself. Soon, he's at sea in a small boat, but he's not getting a bite.
The unknown writer and artist Tony DeAngelo use this to jump-start another charming and funny adventure. Basil decides to head home, but his outboard motor is out of gas. Fortunately, a plane flies by and Basil signals it by writing SOS in whipped cream on the surface of the sea.
The plane is heading for America. Basil is thrilled by this--he's always wanted to visit America.
But Basil isn't good at planning ahead. Once in the USA, he discovers he can't get food without paying for it. And, by golly, no one takes him seriously when he tells them he's a king!
He gets a job at Coney Island, but is soon mortified to discover the job requires him to regularly get dunked in a tub of water as part of an arcade game.
But Basil isn't completely hapless. He rigs the trap door he drops through so that it won't open. Unfortunately, that gets him fired. The story ends with a nice bit of symmetry--Basil is again fishing and again not catching anything.
Like the Basil story we looked at last week, this tale has charm and humor brought to life by DeAngelo's pleasant pencil work. Funny animal stories were once an important and perpetually entertaining part of the medium of comic books. It's really a shame they have disappeared from that medium.
Will Basil ever get a meal? We'll look at the last story from this issue next week and perhaps we'll find out.
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