Remember comic book superheroes? Superman, Batman, The Escapist? Well, maybe not the Escapist, because he's a fictional comic book hero in a new novel called "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay." Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, reinventing comics.

Novelist Michael Chabon talks with Steve Paulson about his life-long love of comic books; the history of comics; and his new novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." And we hear an excerpt from the book-on-tape. Also, cartoon artist Jessica Abel tells Steve about her creation, "Artbabe." She also describes some of her ventures into journalistic cartoon-drawing.

Daniel Clowes penned the popular graphic novels "Ghost World" and "David Boring." He tells Jim Fleming he's only trying to draw the pictures he sees in his head, and dismisses the idea of writing descriptive prose. Also, Scott McCloud is a comic book artist and a comic historian and critic. His latest book is "Re-inventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form." He tells Jim Fleming what computers are doing to comics and explains why he welcomes technical innovation. McCloud also remembers the support he got from his father, who was blind and never saw his son's success.

Jesse Reklaw is the creator of "Slow Wave" - a comic that tries to illustrate various people's dreams. Reklaw describes some of his favorites for Steve Paulson — the apartment building that turns into a chicken, someone hunting "Ziggy" and many more.

-- Jessica Abel has her own website... http://www.artbabe.com/

-- Michael Chabon's website... http://home.earthlink.net/~mchabon/

-- Scott McCloud's website... http://www.scottmccloud.com/

-- Jesse Reklaw's Slow Wave website http://www.slowwave.com/

Distribution dates:

• week of 01/21/2001 - hour 2