Cooler temperatures, successful crowd-dodging maneuvers, and a genuine feeling of starstruckness made it a perfect first day at Comic-Con 2012. Here are some highlights:

• Assessing the individual and collective maturity levels of the kids, who have grown up in front of the press over the past years and are keenly aware of the credit due to Stephenie Meyer, the franchise’s directors, and the worldwide fan base who have turned them into icons. And sensing there might be truth to the notion that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are indeed a couple by the way he devotes full attention to her.
• Watching a kid in a Nintendo controller mask, a DIY construction made of cardboard and magic marker, get more attention than his older brother’s Batman costume.
• John C. Reilly saying to a reporter, “You’re at Comic-Con, man, do your homework” in response to the question if he played the video game Wreck-It Ralph as a kid.
• Talking with comedienne, Wreck-It Ralph co-star, and fellow New Hampshire native Sarah Silverman about Funspot, the arcade in our home state that used to give you five free tokens for every “A” you received on your report card (and 3 tokens for every “C”).
• The Scooby Doo kids.
• Holding brief, nearly back-to-back audiences with Tim Burton and Sam Raimi, both in similar all-black ensembles. It was good to listen to and speak with Burton about a project to which he’s long been connected, the feature-length expansion of his short, Frankenweenie. Raimi, though graceful, already seems weary of all the Spider-Man reboot questions and the misinterpretations of his Oz: The Great and Powerful project (and he didn’t seem to dig my question of whether he discussed directing techniques with James Franco, which I will be overanalyzing for weeks).
• Seizing up as Michelle Williams approached and realizing I was thoroughly starstruck. Instead of asking about Oz: The Great and Powerful, I just wanted to look at her hair, patterned dress, complexion, and shoes from a respectful distance. It’s a bit odd to see a queen of independent dramas in this setting, and I didn’t think it was the place to talk with her about Meek’s Cutoff and how she was robbed of an Oscar nomination there.

With all the talk of Comic-Con becoming too Hollywood-centric and mainstream, sometimes all you need is a photo of Batdog to help you turn down the background noise.