The Preview Night for San Diego's Comic-Con 2009 is in the books, and it looked a lot like every other day of the event -- crowded and incredibly busy on all fronts.

While the extensive panel schedule doesn't start until Thursday morning, thousands of fans hit the convention floor tonight to check out the mega-displays and to get a jump-start on spending lots of money on merchandise.

And, this year's Preview Night brought an immediate rumor that could affect next year's convention.

Even more-so than Rich, I was indeed a Comic-Con newbie. I'd never been to a single one before this past weekend. The closest I've come is Linux World. You can stop laughing now.

Let me start out by stating the obvious, though those unfamiliar with Comic-Con may not know this: Comic-Con is an out-of-control monster. It doesn't quite know what it is, nor do the people attending it. To see everything, you'd need six or seven clones of yourself. The "comic" in Comic-Con must mean that it's comical, not that it's about comic books, because it's about much more than that these days. Television, Movies, Books, Toys, Games ... about the only entertainment medium that isn't represented is radio, and that I'm not even sure is true.

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Comic-Con 2007 officially began with Wednesday's "Preview Night" or, as I like to call it, "Get the Lay of the Land So You Don't Get Trampled to Death by a Grown Man in a Pikachu Costume Night."

Over the next couple of days, I'll be covering panels featuring the casts of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and a few of this coming season's most anticipated new shows - Pushing Daisies, Reaper and Chuck among others. You can keep abreast of the latest scoop by following TV Squad's Twitter feed. (You can score a free TV Squad t-shirt if you're in San Diego by finding me via our Twitter feed.) I'll also be posting photos on Flickr and wrapping-up each day with as many posts as I can churn out to keep you, gentle viewers, informed.