Every year thousands of people flock to San Diego Comic-Con International, the Holy Land of pop culture and overall geekery for 4 days of nerd-tastic bliss. While the convention does not technically start until Thursday, each year they have a "Preview Night" for those attending the full 4-day event. Preview Night typically has no panels or special autographs, but it does give people the chance to explore the exhibit hall and become familiar so they can hit the ground running first thing Thursday morning.

When I entered the exhibit hall I was immediately aware that this year was going to be the biggest Comic-Con yet. I wasn't even sure I would get around to locating all of the exhibitors I was hoping to see, let alone have time to explore the new exhibit booths. There are no panels going on upstairs. With everybody downstairs, I essentially had to wait in line just to walk.

I started to lose my enthusiasm about Comic-Con this year. Did Hollywood become too involved? It took until nearly the end of the night, but by the time I walked out of those convention doors, my faith had been restored... at least for now. I was disappointed to see that the fantastic Sci-Fi exhibit that I enjoyed so much the past two years did not make a return this year; however, I was able to find other exhibits that I have enjoyed in the years past.

Along with old favorites, I also discovered several new booths offering some fantastic goodies. A lot of those booths were practically void of people. Remember folks, when you're not swarming the WB Booth or Summit Entertainment booth looking for some sweet freebies, take a walk around and look at the smaller vendor booths. They are the ones that don't have twenty foot signs and sparkly lights. Often you'll find some of your favorite Comic-Con freebies come from those smaller booths.

The booth that wins my Preview Night Seal of Approval is the booth promoting the new Mike Judge film Extract. The film stars Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig and Ben Affleck. The booth is surrounded with life-size cut-outs of the stars (great photo-op!) and if you walk into the booth, you can get a one-of-a-kind "Green Screen Experience." I asked what the experience was all about, and it turns out it's even cooler than I imagined! There is a scene in the movie where one of the characters takes a can to the groin, resulting in the loss of a testicle. In the Green Screen Experience, they put YOU in the scene. The booth attendants film your reaction shot against the screen and then replace the actor in the scene with you. If that wasn't cool enough, they give you your scene on a free flash drive so you can go home and show all your friends that you took it like a man (or woman), and became part of the scene!

There's a whole lot more to explore this week, but if you are at the convention, I highly recommend stopping by the Extract booth. It is located in the 3000 block of the exhibit floor. Don't miss the Extract panel on Saturday, when Mike Judge will be joined by Bateman, Kunis, and Wiig and screening exclusive footage from the film.

Check back to BuddyTV all this weekend for more exclusive coverage from 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International.

- Christi Fuller, BuddyTV Guest Columnist
Image courtesy of WENN