Ron Gilbert, the mastermind that created Monkey Island is alive and kickin'. And he could have well another innovative approach to games in mind this time.

As he just announced on his website, that a publisher for his long-awaited new game has been found. Which he describes as merger between adventure and RPG -- so to say: Monkey Island meets Diablo. The publisher, Hothead Games, comes from Canada and Ron Gilbert is now working for them as their creative director and project leader.

This project will be released in episodes (Sam and Max proved that this can actually work if you do it right) and the name of its first episode is, well ... let's just say that I can imagine why for a long time no publisher was found: DeathSpank: Episode One: Orphans of Justice.

This is the only thing that's really sure for now. There are no screenshots yet, we don't know anything about the story, the characters or the world, but a website has already been built up and more infos are soon to come.

If you are, however, searching some old comic strips released on Gilbert's weblog you can find a very short insight into what Deathspank looks like, and, well ... let's just say that it could be a rather absurd bloke, this robotic, jumping dude. Absurdism by Ron Gilbert? Oh, I can't wait.

You can read the whole announcement here. And then you can stop pinching yourself.