 A stack of turtles drawn similarly to those featured in " Yertle the Turtle " first appeared on March 20 , 1942 , in a cartoon for the New York City newspaper PM , where Seuss worked as an editorial cartoonist . The illustration shows two stacks of turtles forming the letter " V " on top of a large turtle labelled " <unk> Producers " , with a caption reading " You Can 't Build A Substantial V Out of Turtles ! " 
