Vancouver artist Neil Wedman draws inspiration from cartoons of the 1940s and ’50s, when the voice of social commentary, criticism, and satire was found in the mass market magazine cartoon, à la New Yorker. Wedman forays into the heterosexual male fantasy world – witness the abundance of topless women in his cheeky pen and ink drawings – in Burlesck ($14.95 paper 1-55152-075-3, 94 pp., b&w, Arsenal Pulp Press), the second title from writer Michael Turner’s Advance Editions imprint. According to Wedman, the punchline of a cartoon is often found in the image, not the text: his visually witty yet wordless “novel” lets the reader/viewer imagine the storyline. Katja Pantzar