Tonight I attended the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum's annual Wondercon party, which hosts fans and pros in town for the Bay Area's yearly festival. What distinguished this year's bash, however, was a new exhibit at the museum -- of Watchmen props, costumes and original comic and motion picture art.

When I first reached the museum, located just a few blocks from the convention, I saw its window display of Watchmen merchandise. A lot of this was stuff I didn't even know existed...  

Once inside, I ran into Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons, surrounded by his original comic pages, thumbnail sketches and layout art. Gibbons had just arrived at the convention from London, but kindly listened as I asked him what he thinks people will find most surprising about the film.

"That it exists," he replied with a laugh. "That it's very sexy, that it's very violent, that it's very emotional."

Watchmen still photographer Clay Enos was also on hand, and took a turn on the other end of the camera for a change, posing with his new photo book Watchmen: Portraits. (Check out some of his work at ClayEnos.com.)

The comic art on display included -- be still my heart -- Gibbons' original color sketch for the cover of Watchmen's very first issue, as well as many other pieces featured in his new book Watching the Watchmen (a signed copy of which is just one of the many fabulous prizes in our giant Watchmen Prize Giveaway). After checking all these out, we turned our attention to the props on display -- everything from Rorschach's grappling-hook gun to Nite Owl II's binoculars...  

Finally, we feasted our eyes on the amazingly detailed costumes used in the film for Rorschach, Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II. And wondered if the museum would miss it if we took just one of them home with us. Afer all, then we'd really be able to watch the Watchmen.