No two ways about it, I’m pretty excited about “Watchmen.” The original comic book mini-series has held a pretty special place in my heart since I first bought it, issue by issue, upon its initial publication two decades ago. It was the best, most complex and most satisfying graphic storytelling that I’ve ever read, and also the comic book that ruined all other comic books for me, so high did it set the bar for super-hero fiction. If there’s been anything quite as good since, I haven’t come across it.

Less pontificatingly, I have one reservation about this movie — and in fact all masked super-hero movies: with all of the technology and effects wizardry at the disposal of the film industry, is there really no better solution for making these characters’ masks look convincing than that gaudy black make-up spread around the eyes that they always use? Please, someone put some ingenuity into that.

I’m completely captivated by this photographer’s preternaturally beautiful portraits of empty parking structures, not least because they’re in sync with the geometric photographic style that I favor.

Animation historian Jerry Beck unearths several examples — some little seen — of early animated appearances of the Superman character, both sanctioned and satirical.

Embarrassed I missed this on Saturday, but here it is: the incumbent dean of design on his early career as a graphic designer. “If you worked in a design studio in 1980, you were surrounded by colored paper, rubber cement, X-Acto knives and cans of aerosol spray glue. Our work, whether an annual report or a poster, was done by hand.”

Daniel Lewandowski: “This site is meant to honor and pay utmost respect to the life and work of Mr. Rand. When I first began this project, I discovered that there were no “single-source” references to Mr. Rand or his works anywhere on the internet. Thus sparked the idea to build this tribute/archive site.”

“Designers — and Web designers in particular — create some of the most complex, intricately layered Photoshop compositions possible. How could we make the management and navigation of these files more efficient?” Blogger John Knack floats several intriguing ideas for modifying and adding to the layers feature in Photoshop, and offers a quick poll.

“One way you can stand out, especially on sites like Twitter, is to have a great avatar. A great avatar will help people remember you instantly. And you should use it everywhere, across the board. Use it on your blog if you have one (you should). Use it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere. Even if people don’t automatically remember your name or your website, they’ll remember your avatar and make an association. When they see it again later, on another network or site, they’ll be more likely to pay attention, to friend you, and maybe remove a few of those degrees of separation.”

I’m sure he’s very right. But, jeez, must we all become salesmen for our own idle musings? (Please follow me on Twitter.)

Developer Florian Junker has an incomplete but promising implementation of my BlockWriter concept for a focused writing tool. He’s looking for someone to take over the code and complete it.

Satirical generator for naming your creative business, though I’m disappointed it doesn’t include options for random numbers, too. Made by Breadline Design.

A thoroughly charming children’s book, written and illustrated by the talented husband-and-wife design boutique EightHourDay out of Minneapolis. The winningly simple narrative recounts the misbehavior of a family dog; I can completely relate. Sadly, the book has not yet been published, but EightHourDay have made the entire contents — cover to cover — available on Flickr.