Holiday Buying Guide 2008

Comics aficionados have known for years that Watchmen, by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, is not just one of the classics of the comic book world, it's one of the great works of fiction of the 20th century. Non-comics aficionados are just now discovering this in the blaze of publicity surrounding the upcoming movie. Watching the Watchmen is an account of how this improbable masterpiece came to be, presented in a deluxe oversize format and lushly illustrated with Gibbons' drawings and sketches. Though Moore didn't participate in the book's production, he's present throughout through his script pages, some of which are reproduced in facsimile and come with his private comments. On the first page he writes, by way of preamble: "I'm psyched up, I've got blood up to my elbows, veins in my teeth and my helmet and kneepads securely fastened. Let's get out there and make trouble!" They surely did.

—Lev Grossman