Morning Mix: All Comic-Con Edition

What we learned Friday:

All about "Watchmen" and that quippy Billy Crudup. -- Liz

While dashing through the Convention Center, I passed by a guy who was buying a pretzel and looked a lot like Greg Mottola, director of "Superbad," "The Daytrippers" and several episodes of "Arrested Development" and "Undeclared." Turns out it was Greg Mottola. He told me he was doing a bit of filming at the Con because he's working on a movie, featuring "Shaun of the Dead" alums Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, that begins and ends at Comic-Con. -- Jen

Shortly thereafter, I interviewed Pegg, "Shaun" director Edgar Wright and Jessica Hynes, who all worked together on the very funny BBC series "Spaced." Pegg confirmed what Mottola said, but didn't want to share many details. More of that interview will be posted Monday, in video form. (Also look for video with some of the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000, who I talked to today as well.) -- Jen

Sat in on the Editorial Cartooning panel this afternoon (I know, I surprised even myself) and really dug the art of (and knowledge being dropped by) LA Weekly cartoonist Mr. Fish. -- Liz

(Editor's note and shameless plug: And if you haven't seen it, check out our new comics blog, Comic Riffs.)

Today I walked the exhibit hall again, paying special note to the swag that is an integral part of the Comic-Con experience. In fact, I was so moved by the sheer volume of stuff being thrust on convention-goers, I wrote a whole post about it. -- Liz

The true highlight of my Thursday was the TV showrunners panel, moderated by EW's Jeff Jensen. The lead producers on several big shows -- "Pushing Daisies," "Chuck," "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and (joy!) "Lost" -- all participated. That's right, I was in the same room as Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and I must admit, I felt geekily giddy about that.

Virtually every fan focused their Q&A questions on "Lost." ("I feel like a Pip," Josh Friedman, producer for "Terminator," said at one point.) Among the interesting tidbits LindeCuse mentioned: Since the writers' strike forced them to jettison their plans to delve into the backstories of the freighter folks during season four, they will tell those stories next season but "in a different way," Lindelof said. They also said if they could bring back one character who died, it would be Mr. Eko. And Lindelof confirmed that the name Jeremy Bentham -- the pseudonym adopted by the dead John Locke -- was chosen a year ago when Jack first saw the obit in the season three finale. "Together we have a list of philosophers' names to be employed," Lindelof explained, adding that Bentham's design of the Panopticon prison impacted their decision to use his name. -- Jen

The Kevin Smith panels were hilarious. (More on that in the blog later this morning.) -- Jen

Tomorrow will be a big day. I'll join Jen for the "Heroes" and "Lost" panel (of course), but then I'll break off to interview the stars of the "Harold & Kumar" movies, try to sit in on the Sarah Silverman panel and cover the red carpet at one of Saturday night's scheduled events. -- Liz

Meanwhile, I'll verify that Christian Bale definitely did or didn't show for the "Terminator: Salvation" panel and perhaps catch a glimpse of the "Land of the Lost" movie. Then in the evening: Geek Partying! -- Jen

Come back at 3 p.m. ET when we kick off our live blogging of the annual "Lost" panel. We know Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof are here, but who will they bring with them? And will there be any big surprises or revelations? We'll find out together.