Turtle

Turtle
Gender	Male
Species	Turtle
Debut	Simple Pleasures, page 5 November 2, 2009 (2009-11-02)

Turtle is a small, grinning turtle who turns up under people’s feet at exactly the wrong moment, most famously when he sends Mike sprawling mid-race in Field Day. Five trips over the course of the comic so far, and not one word out of him.

Personality

Turtle has one joke, and the comic is happy to keep telling it. Somebody has momentum, a turtle is suddenly underfoot, and down they go. His fixed grin makes him look pleased with himself, but he is never shown plotting any of it. Veronica’s own summary is about as elaborate as the evidence allows: “Turtle is just a turtle I drew that tripped Mike and that became their only character trait.”

The timing is most of the gag. Paulo promises Lucy that “Paulo’s got you” just before his skateboard hits Turtle. Mike is leading the race when he trips; Paulo gets as far as boasting about a “Perfect run” before the next collision. Teddy is cheerfully bringing over more hotdogs when Turtle crosses his path. Daisy is the exception: Turtle catches her when she is already miserable enough to wonder whether she should give up.

Appearance

Turtle is small enough to disappear into the scenery until somebody steps on or trips over him. His recurring feature is a wide, vacant grin, which the comic specifically gives him in Field Day, Carry Me and Moments Apart. He is perfectly capable of walking away from the scene afterwards, and does so after tripping Paulo in Carry Me.

Significant events

In Simple Pleasures, Paulo is skateboarding down the sidewalk cradling Lucy when his board hits Turtle. Paulo lands on his face, and Lucy is flung into the air and caught by Mike. The trip with the biggest consequences comes in Field Day, where Mike is out in front in the climactic race and goes down over Turtle hard enough to injure his leg. Paulo and Daisy take it for Mike throwing the race to let Lucy win, but the pain is real, and he finishes the chapter with a cast and a cane.

Turtle turns up again in Humble Approach, tripping a miserable Daisy in gym class and leaving her face-down wondering whether she should just give up, which is the moment Abbey offers her his hand.

Back and Forth also shows a small turtle sitting in a classroom aquarium, though nothing on the page establishes that it is the recurring Turtle.

In Carry Me, Paulo is piggybacking a queasy Lucy across a crosswalk and gloating about a perfect run when his foot finds Turtle. Lucy throws up on his shoulder, and Turtle strolls off behind them.

His most recent appearance is Moments Apart, where he crosses Teddy’s path at the picnic and sends a platter of hotdogs flying, prompting Jasmine to rush over and help clean up.

Major relationships

Nobody in the cast has anything resembling a relationship with Turtle. No one notices him before a collision, and no one is shown looking for him afterwards. The one time anybody mentions him aloud is in Field Day, when Lucy wipes away an injured Mike’s tear and tells him, “That turtle really did a number on you.” That is about as social as he gets.

Quotes

Turtle has never said a word in the comic.

Trivia

• His first appearance in archive order is Simple Pleasures, which began in November 2009, but Field Day began in August 2006. Veronica later described Turtle as a character she originally drew to trip Mike, making the race his publication-order debut. The commentary on the Simple Pleasures panel simply greets him with “There he is!”
• A fan once asked whether he was a nod to the asdfmovie “Mine Turtle”, Veronica said she had no idea what they were referring to.
• The commentary on the Field Day trip scolds Mike for nearly running over an endangered species.

See also

• Mike
• Paulo
• Background characters