Anyone who knows comic books knows Watchmen. The seminal graphic novel—originally, a finite 12-issue series published in 1986–87—altered the landscape of the medium. So it’s about time somebody documented its birth. With Watching the Watchmen, a visually impressive coffee-table tome, the man doing the honors is none other than Dave Gibbons, the illustrative half of the comic’s creative team. Gibbons opens up his archives, allowing readers “making of” insight in heady detail. Writer Alan Moore, though justly proud of his original work, has disavowed any present connection with Watchmen and did not contribute.

Still, Moore’s talent infuses this art-heavy retrospective, thanks to glimpses of correspondence and original script pages, which he bashed out on a jankety manual typewriter. Geek-out details include Gibbons’s earliest incarnation of Nite Owl, a Batman analogue he sketched as a 14-year-old, and a hilarious early design for trench-coat-clad vigilante Rorschach, drawn instead with an inkblot leotard.

The handsome, hefty book features Kiddarific design—the trademark touch of Chip Kidd who, along with fellow graphics guru Mike Essl, worked with Gibbons to present hundreds of pages of art with an eye toward flow. Unfortunately, they scrimp on text: Most notably, the book needs more elucidation about the stunning (yet surely difficult to execute) fifth chapter, “Fearful Symmetry,” which features panel layouts and color schemes that perfectly mirror each other from either end toward the middle.

Of course, the book’s unlikely to interest anyone who hasn’t yet devoured the original graphic novel. Still, it gives those interested in comics a stronger perspective about its genre-expanding impact. With a Hollywood adaptation looming in March 2009, Watching is timely, as well as long overdue.

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