Originally published in: Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #4
Publication date: February, 1992
Story, art and colors: Michael Gaydos and Dan Berger
“Thoughts on Paper”
Summary:
Through an abstract collage of familiar imagery (Turtles, ninja weapons, Splinter, the sewers), one of the Turtles contemplates their relationships
through stream of consciousness babble.
He thinks about how they have been hiding and searching for themselves
for 16 years. He thinks about how
Splinter is not just their master, but “the one”. He thinks about how he and his brothers are
“four” and “forever”. Yet also,
sometimes they are not his brothers, but reflections of his own inadequacies
and loneliness. He considers how all
these numbers and variables are too confusing to keep track of.
Don is suddenly roused from his drawing board by one of
his brothers (either Raph or Mikey).
They’ve come back from McDonald’s and it’s about time for
“Cops in Budapest”. Don snaps out of it
and tells his brother that he’s been studying art lately and it kind of got him
itching to experiment with what he’s learned.
The Turtle takes one look at Don’s surrealist sketchbook and
immediately thinks Don is on something.
Don laughs and agrees that his attempts at art maybe aren’t so hot.
As they leave to go watch TV, Splinter takes a look at
the sketchbook for himself. He is
immediately fascinated by Don’s profound musings.
Turtle Tips:
*The credits don’t specify which creator contributed to
which portions of the comic, though I imagine it was a highly collaborative effort. The last page is very clearly Dan Berger’s
pencils, however.
Review:
So this is the story that ends Turtle Soup, though I don’t
think it was supposed to be the last installment (Turtle Soup was meant to be
an ongoing, not a limited series). As a
parting shot, “Thoughts on Paper” offers some very strange visuals and a
genuine change of pace for the anthology.
Most stories in Turtle Soup have been action/adventure pieces or dumb
absurdist comedies. There were a handful
of introspective shorts that were definitely highlights, but even those were
pretty typical in terms of their art direction (though they were certainly
attractive-looking, don’t get me wrong).
“Thoughts on Paper”, on a surface level, looks to be
Gaydos and Berger trying their hands at aping the style of Dave McKean; that
abstract collage and cut-out style that’s uniquely his. The context of the story revealed in the final
page explains that Donatello is attempting to mimic the art styles of
others to learn more about the craft, which was a nice meta reference and also helps
take the edge off of any excess criticisms regarding Gaydos and Berger’s
success at copying McKean. While it
definitely does feel like pastiche stuff, I think they did a pretty good job of
applying that weird graphic flavor to the Turtles. The text is a bit hokey, but again, the
context puts it all into perspective.
I do kind of wish that the Turtle drawing the comic had
been revealed to be Michelangelo, not Donatello. Art and storytelling was something Mikey was
established as taking an interest in way back in TMNT (Vol. 1) #17 and future
stories published after this one would continue showing him working on his
craft. While there’s certainly nothing
wrong with Donatello taking a crack at art, I think it would have been a nicer
moment for Mikey’s character development, personally.
On the other hand, it’s kind of a nice companion piece to
“Credo”, a short that deals with Donatello struggling to put his feelings into
words. In this case, Don is
trying his hand at putting his feelings into art and having just as much
trouble. In both stories, Don gives his age as 16, so they actually go back-to-back fairly well (the setting in the final pages even implies the ramshackle farmhouse).
All in all, “Thoughts on Paper” is one of the most unique
installments in the Turtle Soup anthology, though easy to overlook because it’s
more of a visual experiment than a full-fledged story.
Grade: B- (as in, “But I can’t tell what that symbol on
the sketchbook in the final panel is supposed to be. It sort of looks like E.T. if you squint.”)
