The Comic-Con ad campaign that featured Showtime's Dexter buddying up with a bright-eyed little serial-killer-in-training is spreading into the mainstream media and onto the show's online merchandise page.

Dexter producers added the new diapered supporting character at the end of last season. To build buzz for the show's Comic-Con panel, Showtime plastered posters like the one shown around the San Diego Convention Center, area buses, billboards, etc.

I questioned at the time where the line between cute and creepy resides when the campaign equates baby behavior with serial murder -- and maybe cannibalism in the ads where the kid is splattered with red jam.

There's still plenty of Comic-Con International coverage en route from me, including exclusive interviews you'll only find here.

But, as the Monday morning after the madness dawns, we'll take a few minutes and review the major impressions left by the four day weekend.

What happened? What were the biggest themes of the convention and what didn't happen that everyone was hoping would. In other words, what was Comic-Con 2009, and where did it fall short?

The Venture Brothers have all the trappings of a major, cross-media animated comedy phenomena -- except the popularity and notoriety that comes with it.

Written on the same brilliant scale as The Simpsons or South Park and drenched in hip pop culture references, Venture Brothers remains a show with a devoted cult following that stays just off the mass media's radar. And series creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer aren't sure why.

"We didn't even get nominated for an Annie (animation) Award," Hammer told me. "Never mind an Emmy. We thought we could at least get an Annie. We can't explain it. You probably have a better idea of why that is than we do."

A new gallery is up and running featuring some of the fun sites of Saturday -- the busiest day of Comic-Con.

Have a look and share the vicarious convention experience here.













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Showtime's Dexter came to Comic-Con International this year and brought along an ad campaign that would be consdiered in poor "taste" anywhere but in this four-day epicenter of debauchery.

As the Comic-Con premiere trailer shows, the fourth season of Dexter unveils the deadly title character's new arrival, a baby boy (Harrison). The kid is obviously cute (right), and he plays well off of the simmering sinister visage of his fictional fathr.

The little prince is featured in a massive ad campaign throughout downtown San Diego ads, inside the convention center, on buses and cabs, etc.

Sunday will bring Comic-Con International to a close. And, folks like me who have been working the convention since Wednesday are feeling a lot like The Prisoner's poor, run-down Rover (right).

Saturday is usually the busiest at Comic-Con International -- the day when crowds hit their peak. It was certainly the busiest day so far for me on the convention beat.

In an eight-hour period, I piled up several exclusive, one-on-one interviews for TV Squad. They're set to run soon as Comic-Con winds down for 2009.

While Wedneday brought the rumor that 2010 Comic-Con International's Preview Night would move up from Wednesday to Tuesday here in San Diego, today comes the rumor that the convention might be leaving San Diego altogether.

Word is going around that the popular entertainment world will descend on Los Angeles next year, leaving the San Diego Convention Center behind.

It's not the first time this possibility has been raised, but the sheer and ever-growing size of the convention is making it look more likely.

Just a quick note here to announce a new gallery we posted showing the random sights of 2009's Comic-Con International.

Check it out and enjoy some shots I took while on the run from event to event -- like the perfect Mystery Science Theater 3000 Torgo (right) from the Rifftrax panel.

You can check out the gallery here:


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It's easy enough to whine about the crowds or the lines or the food, etc., at Comic-Con International. But it's organizers certainly got the press room right.

This is where most of the stories you read online at TV Squad and other sites (at least I think there are other sites) are written and filed. General attendees don't get a chance to see it. It's press-only, huge, air-conditioned, and chock full of free wi-fi. It's a bit of a hike to get to, but that's a quibble.

Since it's a reporter's job to be out collecting news on the floor or in the press conferences and not to sit around, it's half empty most of the time. And, amazingly, a lot of the reporters here don't know it exists and never use it.

So, shush. Let's keep it that way.

Just a quick note for those three civilized people on planet Earth who didn't use Google Thursday, the logo (or bug) on the search engine's home page went all Comic-Con International to celebrate the event.

Some of D.C. Comic's mightiest heroes (Batman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern and Plastic Man) decorate the artsy "Google" for all the world to see.

Stay tuned for TV Squad's continued coverage today.

A persistent rumor around the Comic-Con International floor says a major television network is abducting random innocent people and forcing them to look at a man's intimate garments.

It seems CW's Smallville series will finally go full-on Superman this year and knock off all of this Clark Kent adolescent, romantic angst nonsense. And Superman needs a super suit to match his new gig. CW reps are reportedly pulling random faces out of the crowd to go behind the scenes and get a glimpse of the mythical outfit.

The trouble is they're more likely to pick a young lady or a bright-eyed kid out of the crowd to see the cool stuff -- not a 6'3", 250 lb. lummox with a press badge. I asked around the Warner Bros. and CW floor presentations and got the playful brush-off.

I'm writing this from a line at Comic-Con International. In fact, for the next four days, I'll do little else except stand in line at Comic-Con.

If you're a panel organizer who wants press coverage at Comic-Con International, form a VIP or press line. I realize the odds that anyone actually organizing panels at the convention is reading this right now are low, but I'll record this for future generations -- like a sweaty time capsule.

Every year, the schedule of events for fans and press gets more and more packed. From curtain up until close, something worth covering is going on. Press scrambles from event to event to make sure readers unable to attend keep up on the news.

In ABC's new speculative fiction series FlashForward, the entire world blacks out for 2:17 second. During that time, everyone sees a vision of the world on April 29, 2010.

Visistors to the floor of Comic-Con International can visit the FlashForward booth and share "what they saw" during their glimpse into the future for The Mosaic Collective.

Obviously, it's all part of the make-believe fun here on the Comic-Con floor. The overheated crowds haven't started blacking out yet. But, this kind of audience participation is a key marketing theme around here.