A Comic-Con sampler...

You can get your breathless "BREAKING NEWS!" from Comic-Con all over the web ad nauseum, so—aside from a couple of quick chats we had with some old friends, which will be up shortly— I'll just share some of the snaps I felt like taking ...

...such as this year's ubiquitous Comic-Con pole pennant. So despite little panel presence inside, Star Trek and its classic font were never far out of sight. (Note the companion, understated Batman-like Trek arrowhead "ad.")

If you took a free shuttle ride out to Balboa Park and the Fleet Scienc Museum to see the trimmed down and newly relaunched "Star Trek: The Exhibition"—a mile or two distant from the convention downtown area—you took a ride on the Defiant to get there. Hmmm, looks like someone was a DS9 fan ...

And if they didn't make it out to the Exhibition, a lot of fans were surprised they could whip out the cameras and pose in the original Captain Kirk chair commissioned by Roddenberry Productions at their booth. Pose fast at Vegas, if you're there: it's due to be given away later this year. (And be sure to try all the arm pushbuttons).

Not Star Trek at all, but the new The Mummy movie makers and sellers had a great idea for interactive viral marketing: This giant fenced display of Chinese "terracotta soldiers" from the movie (right on the streaming mobs' path out of Comic-Con across the street and past the trolley tracks amid the first wave of hotels) carries signage instructing you to pose for pics and then send your snaps to the movie's website where they will be displayed! Talk about a great way to get "hits and eyeballs" ...

But Trek was no slouch, either. Here's the madhouse scene at 5:07 p.m. Sunday night--officially seven minutes after the massive Exhibit Hall closed—when the staff and "booth babes" gamely held on to finish serving all the fans playing the weekend's promotional Trek game for a poster. Much was made of the "lone" Paramount booth for a Trek presence (despite actors and crew dispersed in panels for other projects)--but there was never a slow time around this part of the floor.

And speaking of the eight unfairly-titled "booth babes," I had a great time hearing from off-duty cadettes Meredith Beardmore (left) and Jessica Hale that while they had not been really aware of Trek going in, they certainly got a weekend's worth of wisdom from all the fans they met and helped. (And no, techheads, those are not official uniforms (or handbags) of any kind from the movie. But very "of the mode" and very very cute, don't you think?)

Now, how can you top that? Stay tuned....