I attended my first Comic-Con International in San Diego 10 years ago, just as some of the big Hollywood studios were starting to discover it.</p><p>Japanese anime was trying to go mainstream in the U.S., and what better way to build buzz than connect with 100,000 comic, sci-fi, fantasy and animation aficionados all under one gigantic roof?</p><p>Since then, practically every film and TV operation in the world has figured out that you can&rsquo;t get a bigger bang for your buck than taking your talent &mdash; and lots of giveaways &mdash; down to the San Diego Convention Center in July.</p><p>Blair Butler has seen Comic-Con swell from large to XXL in her years covering it for the G4 channel. Attendance has filled the center to capacity, with about 130,000 ticketed for the four-day event that begins today and runs through Sunday. </p><p>Once again, the Kansas City-bred queen of comic books and host of &ldquo;Fresh Ink&rdquo; on G4&rsquo;s &ldquo;Attack of the Show!&rdquo; will be joining Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn and the rest of the &ldquo;AOTS&rdquo; gang for a special report from the floor of the convention center. The three-hour show airs 3 p.m. Saturday on G4 (digital cable).</p><p>&ldquo;Not only has the mainstream caught on, so have celebrities,&rdquo; said Butler, daughter of Star film critic Robert Butler, by phone last week. &ldquo;Paris Hilton came here last year to promote &lsquo;Repo&rsquo; with surely the most bizarre convergence of media ever.</p><p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have almost anything covered there. I think &lsquo;Good Luck Chuck&rsquo; had Dane Cook and Jessica Alba there, which off the top of my head I would not associate with the Comic-Con demographic.&rdquo;</p><p>Well, if we include the fantasies of young male geeks, then Jessica Alba counts as a fantasy star. But what&rsquo;s to explain face-lifted, 40-something sitcom lifer Patricia Heaton making an appearance this week at Comic-Con to promote her new Fox show &ldquo;The Middle&rdquo;?</p><p>&ldquo;I know there are plenty of comic-savvy moms out there, but I don&rsquo;t think they embrace Patricia Heaton,&rdquo; Butler said.</p><p>Among the movies being promoted at the Con, Butler is excited about the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Road&rdquo;; an independent team action flick, &ldquo;Kick-Ass,&rdquo; that is still looking for a distributor; and the superhero sequel &ldquo;Iron Man 2.&rdquo; (Speaking of the hombre de hierro, comic book writer and soon-to-be-ex-Kansas Citian Matt Fraction will be there to talk about his new book, &ldquo;Invincible Iron Man.&rdquo;)</p><p>But enough about the cineplex. It&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s coming to TV that is the whole reason I&rsquo;m going to Comic-Con.</p><p>I&rsquo;m looking forward to talking with the creators of &ldquo;The Mighty Boosh,&rdquo; the weirdly popular import from England airing overnights on Adult Swim.</p><p> The stars and producers of &ldquo;Caprica,&rdquo; the prequel to &ldquo;Battlestar Galactica,&rdquo; will be there, too. So will the stars of &ldquo;24,&rdquo; &ldquo;Chuck,&rdquo; &ldquo;True Blood,&rdquo; the new show &ldquo;V&rdquo; and the upcoming Starz remake of Stanley Kubrick&rsquo;s 1960 film &ldquo;Spartacus.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I am ridiculously excited about &lsquo;Spartacus,&rsquo;&ensp;&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I have heard it&rsquo;s, like, hyperviolent. I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s they&rsquo;re jumping on the &lsquo;300&rsquo; trend a little too late &mdash; but maybe it&rsquo;s like &lsquo;Rome&rsquo; on HBO. I&rsquo;m fascinated to see how they handle it.&rdquo;</p><p> Friday is Star Wars day at the Con, and several important announcements are expected about upcoming projects relating to Star Wars and its latest manifestation as a high-def cartoon, &ldquo;Clone Wars.&rdquo;