- Wednesday’s preview night starts off with a bang with the pilot screening of the new Fox show Fringe, created by my main man J.J. Abrams. There will be more to find out in panels and interviews later in the con, but this will be a good barometer to see if fans take to it as much as to, say, Lost and Alias. I didn’t see any of that leaked pilot mess on the Internet, so I’m coming at it with fresh eyes and will give you the full scoop afterward. (There is also something else cool happening Wednesday night that I will be weighing in on – but that’s a surprise!)

- For some reason, Paramount isn’t hosting panels on either of its two biggest movies opening next summer, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Being a child of the ‘80s (and 32 years old going on 10), I’m eagerly awaiting early footage from these two toy franchise flicks. Hopefully, they might have a surprise in store at the Hasbro toy company panels on Thursday (G.I. Joe) and Friday (Transformers). But if they don’t, at least I’ll get a peek at the Comic-Con exclusive Cobra Commander action figure (at left), which will be one of the hottest collectibles at the event.

- Are you watching Watchmen? I sure am! And so will everybody else come Friday morning when Warner Bros. trots out director Zack Snyder and his cast (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, et al) for new footage from the March 2009 epic. For my money (and many other comic lovers out there), the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons story is the best comic in pretty much ever. The fantastic new trailer debuted with The Dark Knight and online last week and the buzz is indeed deafening.

- The television community will be out in full force as well, with both new and old shows. CBS’ The Big Bang Theory stars a bunch of watchable nerds (and one babe) and makes its Comic-Con debut on Friday; NBC’s sophomore show Chuck (one of my personal faves) has a panel on Saturday (along with the aforementioned Fringe); and the CW twosome of Smallville and Supernatural are both screening previews of their new seasons on Sunday morning. Being a fan of Buffy – and of most things HBO does — I want to see if the new channel’s new vampire drama True Blood (Thursday) has bite before it premieres in September. Really, though, most fans will be clamoring for tastes of the new seasons of Lost (Saturday), 24 (Friday) and Heroes (Saturday).

- You know what THE talk of Comic-Con is, though? It’s Twilight, the new movie coming out this fall directed by Catherine Hardwick (Thirteen) and based on Stephenie Meyer’s novels. Evidently, this is angsty romance between a teen girl and a broody bloodsucker is the biggest thing in literature since Harry Potter so I’m aiming to find out why exactly this thing is a ginormous pop-culture juggernaut.

There will be lots to cover, but remember to let me know in the comments if there’s something you HAVE to know about and I’ll try and suss it out. For the complete schedule, go to www.comic-con.org.