I wanted to start off the news today with a full on internet rumor derived from flimsy evidence. There was an interesting exchange on Twitter between Felicia Day and Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE Stephen Toulouse on Wednesday that ended with this tweet:

@feliciaday I GNO. ah well. Maybe we can arrange for a thumping with the appropriate people at ECCC.
8:30 PM Jan 6th from web in reply to feliciaday

Could Felicia Day be coming to Emerald City Comic Con? There is certainly nothing official on the ECCC website but that shouldn’t prevent the outbreak of rampant speculation.

One guest that is sure to be at Emerald City is comic book rock band Kirby Krackle! We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit KK frontman Kyle Stevens in the studio while he was laying down vocals for Kirby Krackle’s second album E For Everyone. If you listened to their self-titled first album and thought, “that’s pretty good but I wish they had a more kick-ass, full rock band sound” then E For Everyone will be the album for you. We got to hear a few tracks and in spite of the fact that they weren’t even all done yet they were amazing! Once they get their final polish and the album is released I can say with some confidence that it will be totally awesome! There are a couple more pictures of our studio visit up on our Flickr page.

The rest of your Monday news is under the fold

Books

• Amazon has announced the next generation of its Kindle e-book reader. The Kindle DX will feature a 9.7 inch screen and will also have global 3G wireless capability for added convenience when downloading content. The price is still pretty steep at $489. The new Kindles should be available on January 19.

Comics

• Wizards of the Coast has released Path of the Planeswakers, a graphic novel that collects the entire planeswalker web comic series in one volume along with some never before seen material.
  

  In this action-packed volume, readers get adventures from all their favorite planeswalkers including battles between mind-mage Jace Beleren and the implusive pyromancer Chandra Naalar. The mercurial necromancer Liliana Vess tangles with the savage Garruk Wildspeaker. And we learn more of the artificer Tezzeret’s past with the Seekers of Carmot, plus much more.

  Path of the Planeswalkers is available now.

  

• Marvel Comics has announced that it will be giving Black Widow her own ongoing title for the first time. The series will be written by Marjorie Liu (currently to co-writer of Marvel’s Dark Wolverine title) with art by Daniel Acuna who has worked on Eternals and X-Men: Legacy. Black Widow #1 is due out this April, just in time for the release of Iron Man 2 which, in a startling coincidence, also will feature Black Widow.

Games

• A couple pieces of Magic: The Gathering news. First, Wizards will be selling all foil booster packs featuring cards from the Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn sets. Each booster will have 15 cards, every single one of them a foil. Shiny! The foil boosters are in stores now for a limited time. Also, look for a new addition to the Duel Decks series with the release of Phyrexia vs. The Coalition coming in March.

  Movies

  
  • Sci Fi Wire has some news about the forthcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer confirmed that Johnny Depp will be back as Captain Jack Sparrow but there is still no word if Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom or Geoffrey Rush will also be returning. Filming on the movie which is based on the Tim Powers novel On Stranger Tides starts in June.

    

  • Variety is reporting that Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively has been cast as Hal Jordan’s love interest Carol Ferris in the Green Lantern movie. In more Green Lantern news, Comic Book Resources is reporting that the film may have finally been officially greenlit by the studio based on a seemingly now deleted post on the blog of visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas.

    

  • The Director’s Guild has released their list of nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film. The nominees are
    • Avatar, by James Cameron
    • The Hurt Locker, by Kathryn Bigelow
    • Inglourious Basterds, by Quentin Tarrantino
    • Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, by Lee Daniels
    • Up in the Air, by Jason Reitman

  TV

  
  • IF Magazine, along with numerous other sources on the internet are reporting that Stan Lee to be the latest celebrity guest on The Big Bang Theory. Stan Lee joins the growing list of geek celebs that have appeared on the CBS series which includes Wil Wheaton, Katee Sackhoff and Summer Glau. There is no word on when Lee’s episode will air.