Capers at Comic-Con: Stars, a Zombie Walk

"Fan participation" takes on a different meaning at Comic-Con, which is expected to draw a sold-out crowd of roughly 126,000 people. At 6 p.m. Saturday, for instance, there's the fourth annual Zombie Walk, in which the undead (or just people wearing undead makeup) will gather near Horton Plaza to shamble through downtown San Diego. To promote the film

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

, meanwhile, Universal is staging an "immersive experience" at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel where DJs will spin music and cast members will sign autographs and make T-shirts for fans. From 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Fox will park a taco truck at the corner of Fifth Avenue and J Street to promote Robert Rodriguez's

Machete

; later that evening, the first 500 fans at the site who are 21 or older will be able to view advance footage from the film on an outdoor screen. At the Lionsgate booth in the Convention Center, meanwhile, the film

Buried

will try the captive-audience approach: Willing participants will be filmed while they're "trapped" in a coffinlike confined space for 30 seconds, and the video will be posted in a virtual cemetery online.

The biggest room at the Con is Hall H - it doesn't stand for Hollywood, but it really should, considering it's the place where the studios parade their stars and filmmakers to win the hearts of the audience (and the world, which plugs in via Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc.). The stars in Hall H this year include Angelina Jolie for

Salt

, Will Ferrell for

Megamind

, Jeff Bridges for

Tron: Legacy

, Ryan Reynolds for

Green Lantern

, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone for

The Expendables

, and Helen Mirren (!) for

Red

.

What about rumors that Brad Pitt, who is the good-guy opposite of Ferrell's evil genius in the animated November release Megamind, will make his Comic-Con debut on Friday, the same day Jolie is scheduled to appear? Pitt wasn't listed in the Con's first official lineup announcement and Ferrell was slippery on the topic: "Oh, yeah, yeah, the other guy . . . there's an outside chance that someone with that name will be there. Or not. Maybe."

Four decades ago, the first Comic-Con in San Diego was staged in a hotel basement, and there was nobody in attendance who looked like Jolie. It was pretty much all about comic books back then, and though they're now second fiddle (or third), there is some strong comic-book programming. Neal Adams, the comics titan whose sleek and shadowy version of Batman in the late 1960s and early 1970s reclaimed the character from Adam West camp, will join old writing partner Denny O'Neil for a Saturday panel that might make some middle-aged fans swoon with Gotham City nostalgia. More of the moment: Marvel Comics writer Matt Fraction has a Sunday spoken-word performance keyed to comics history (think

Swimming to Cambodia

meets superheroes), and his Saturday summit with Marvel writers Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Waid, and Chris Claremont will be analyzed for secret meanings and hints. There's the annual tribute to the King of Comics, the late Jack Kirby, on Sunday, and there also will be some last-minute programming additions, no doubt, to mark the recent passing of Harvey Pekar, the crankiest voice in underground comics.

Jon Favreau just started filming

Cowboys & Aliens

in the New Mexico desert with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, but he persuaded the film's producers (including Steven Spielberg) that it was worth his time to fly to San Diego to talk to fans about the movie - about space invaders who land in the Old West - even without footage to show them. Other 2011 films looking to make a mark include

Battle: Los Angeles

(Aaron Eckhart leads urban war against aliens);

Drive Angry

, a body-count vendetta film with Nicolas Cage; and Zack Snyder's insane-asylum fantasy

Sucker Punch

. Says Snyder: "It's absolutely important to start a conversation with the fans, and Comic-Con is the place to do it."

On Saturday, there's a paranormal TV showdown as the federal agents in charge of weirdness from

Warehouse 13

start their panel 15 minutes after the federal agents in charge of weirdness from Fox hit

Fringe

begin theirs. If you're old-school spooky, go see

Californication

star David Duchovny (formerly of

The X-Files

) on Thursday on the Showtime panel, which also features the stars of

Weeds

and

Dexter

. Since when is

Weeds

a Comic-Con television property? The real question is what isn't a Comic-Con property anymore, with the casts and creators of

Glee,

Castle,

Bones

, and

White Collar

going to the ever-expanding expo.