2022 is clearly the year of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Even as the music industry's most prolific parody artist embarks on another North American tour, Roku is gearing up for the release of the Daniel Radcliffe-starring WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story. Now Weird Al fans have another upcoming release to look forward to - a graphic novel called The Illustrated Al: The Songs of "Weird Al" Yankovic.

First off, check out the incredible cover to The Illustrated Al, painted by MAD Magazine's Drew Friedman:

Published by Z2 Comics, The Illustrated Al is a songbook that spotlights roughly 20 tracks from Yankovic's decades-long career. Each song is interpreted by a different cartoonist and reimagined as a sequential comic book tale. While Z2 isn't revealing which Weird Al classics have made the cut, the publisher did confirm the following artists:

• Drew Friedman (MAD Magazine)
• Mike & Laura Allred (Madman)
• Bill Plympton (Your Face, Guard Dog)
• Aaron Augenblick (Superjail!, Ugly Americans)
• Peter Bagge (Hate)
• Sam Viviano (MAD Magazine)
• Steve Chanks (Revolver Magazine)
• Danny Hellman (Village Voice)
• Felipe Sobreiro (Luther Strode, Death’s Head)
• Gideon Kendall (MegaGhost)
• Michael Kupperman (Up All Night, The New Yorker)
• Wes Hargis (My New Teacher and Me!, When I Grow Up)
• Ruben Bolling ( Tom the Dancing Bug and Super-Fun-Pak Comix)
• Fred Harper (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal)

“It’s such an incredible honor to see my song lyrics brought to life by some of my all-time favorite cartoonists and illustrators,” said Yankovic in Z2's press release. “I’ve actually been playing the long game—the only reason I spent four decades in the music business is so that one day I could have my very own graphic novel.”

As with many of Z2's music-inspired graphic novels, The Illustrated Al will be released in multiple versions when it hits stores in November 2022. In addition to the standard softcover and hardcover editions, there will be both Deluxe Edition and Super Deluxe Edition hardcovers. These oversized collections will include a number of bonus physical items like art prints, drink coasters, a vinyl slipmat and, in the case of the Super Deluxe Edition, a mini-accordion.

WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story will debut on The Roku Channel later in 2022. W got our first look at Radcliffe as an '80s-era Yankovic back in February, and Roku released the first teaser trailer for the biopic in May:

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

2022 is clearly the year of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Even as the music industry's most prolific parody artist embarks on another North American tour, Roku is gearing up for the release of the Daniel Radcliffe-starring WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story. Now Weird Al fans have another upcoming release to look forward to - a graphic novel called The Illustrated Al: The Songs of "Weird Al" Yankovic.

First off, check out the incredible cover to The Illustrated Al, painted by MAD Magazine's Drew Friedman:

Published by Z2 Comics, The Illustrated Al is a songbook that spotlights roughly 20 tracks from Yankovic's decades-long career. Each song is interpreted by a different cartoonist and reimagined as a sequential comic book tale. While Z2 isn't revealing which Weird Al classics have made the cut, the publisher did confirm the following artists:

• Drew Friedman (MAD Magazine)
• Mike & Laura Allred (Madman)
• Bill Plympton (Your Face, Guard Dog)
• Aaron Augenblick (Superjail!, Ugly Americans)
• Peter Bagge (Hate)
• Sam Viviano (MAD Magazine)
• Steve Chanks (Revolver Magazine)
• Danny Hellman (Village Voice)
• Felipe Sobreiro (Luther Strode, Death’s Head)
• Gideon Kendall (MegaGhost)
• Michael Kupperman (Up All Night, The New Yorker)
• Wes Hargis (My New Teacher and Me!, When I Grow Up)
• Ruben Bolling ( Tom the Dancing Bug and Super-Fun-Pak Comix)
• Fred Harper (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal)

“It’s such an incredible honor to see my song lyrics brought to life by some of my all-time favorite cartoonists and illustrators,” said Yankovic in Z2's press release. “I’ve actually been playing the long game—the only reason I spent four decades in the music business is so that one day I could have my very own graphic novel.”

As with many of Z2's music-inspired graphic novels, The Illustrated Al will be released in multiple versions when it hits stores in November 2022. In addition to the standard softcover and hardcover editions, there will be both Deluxe Edition and Super Deluxe Edition hardcovers. These oversized collections will include a number of bonus physical items like art prints, drink coasters, a vinyl slipmat and, in the case of the Super Deluxe Edition, a mini-accordion.

WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story will debut on The Roku Channel later in 2022. W got our first look at Radcliffe as an '80s-era Yankovic back in February, and Roku released the first teaser trailer for the biopic in May:

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The Acolyte writer and showrunner Leslye Headland has spoken at length about the influences and ideas behind her upcoming Disney+ series.

Headland previewed The Acolyte for Vanity Fair's cover story, giving new details about the "mystery thriller" and how she approached the project, considering it is the first screen story told from the High Republic era. She affirmed that she is very familiar with the timeline and that she had ambitions to explore a different period in the galaxy far, far away.

"The truth is that I, as a major mega fan, came to them with this idea," Headland admitted. "And I said, 'I think the best place to put this is in an era you guys have not quite explored yet.' They were very enthusiastic. It wasn't that they didn't want to explore that [existing] world, but I think that they already were because The Mandalorian and a lot of the other television projects were really relying on legacy characters."

"I was coming at it as a fan who was much more into the RPG [role-playing games] that the Extended Universe feeds on," she added. "I knew the timeline really well. And I was like, 'I think if you want to explore Star Wars from the perspective of the bad guys, the best time to do it is when the bad guys are wildly outnumbered. When they actually are essentially the underdogs, for lack of a better term.' So this would be that era."

As well as exploring the Expanded Universe and an altogether different era onscreen, Headland was keen to tap into more personal stories. She reflected on the cinematic influences that went into the creation of Star Wars, including Westerns and Akira Kurosawa samurai films, and revealed that she found herself drawn to martial arts movies.

"I actually went more toward martial arts films, and storylines that are a little bit more personal and less global and galactic," Headland said. "Those warriors were on missions that were deeply personal, with people feeling wronged and having to make it right. Wuxia Films and martial arts films from King Hu and the Shaw Brothers, like Come Drink With Me and Touch Of Zen. They're monks that are also martial arts heroes."

Headland developed the idea with Lucasfilm execs Michelle Rejwan and Rayne Roberts who recognized the opportunity to delve into a mystery thriller that will explore "a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emergent dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era" — which is one of the few tidbits we were given about the series when it was announced.

"What's so exciting about those [influencing] stories is that you don't always know exactly who the bad guys are and who the good guys are," Headland added, teasing one of the potential mysteries that viewers will ponder over. "You're not quite sure whether you can trust the heroine in this case as a result of that."

The Acolyte is set during the High Republic era, roughly 100 years before the Skywalker Saga. This is the same era that's been the backdrop of the various High Republic novels and comics, though those stories explore various facets of a conflict that unfolds about 200 years before the movies, sparking speculation amongst fans over whether Darth Plagueis might appear.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail image credit: Ario Anindito/Grzegorz Krysiński via Lucasfilm.

The Acolyte writer and showrunner Leslye Headland has spoken at length about the influences and ideas behind her upcoming Disney+ series.

Headland previewed The Acolyte for Vanity Fair's cover story, giving new details about the "mystery thriller" and how she approached the project, considering it is the first screen story told from the High Republic era. She affirmed that she is very familiar with the timeline and that she had ambitions to explore a different period in the galaxy far, far away.

"The truth is that I, as a major mega fan, came to them with this idea," Headland admitted. "And I said, 'I think the best place to put this is in an era you guys have not quite explored yet.' They were very enthusiastic. It wasn't that they didn't want to explore that [existing] world, but I think that they already were because The Mandalorian and a lot of the other television projects were really relying on legacy characters."

"I was coming at it as a fan who was much more into the RPG [role-playing games] that the Extended Universe feeds on," she added. "I knew the timeline really well. And I was like, 'I think if you want to explore Star Wars from the perspective of the bad guys, the best time to do it is when the bad guys are wildly outnumbered. When they actually are essentially the underdogs, for lack of a better term.' So this would be that era."

As well as exploring the Expanded Universe and an altogether different era onscreen, Headland was keen to tap into more personal stories. She reflected on the cinematic influences that went into the creation of Star Wars, including Westerns and Akira Kurosawa samurai films, and revealed that she found herself drawn to martial arts movies.

"I actually went more toward martial arts films, and storylines that are a little bit more personal and less global and galactic," Headland said. "Those warriors were on missions that were deeply personal, with people feeling wronged and having to make it right. Wuxia Films and martial arts films from King Hu and the Shaw Brothers, like Come Drink With Me and Touch Of Zen. They're monks that are also martial arts heroes."

Headland developed the idea with Lucasfilm execs Michelle Rejwan and Rayne Roberts who recognized the opportunity to delve into a mystery thriller that will explore "a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emergent dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era" — which is one of the few tidbits we were given about the series when it was announced.

"What's so exciting about those [influencing] stories is that you don't always know exactly who the bad guys are and who the good guys are," Headland added, teasing one of the potential mysteries that viewers will ponder over. "You're not quite sure whether you can trust the heroine in this case as a result of that."

The Acolyte is set during the High Republic era, roughly 100 years before the Skywalker Saga. This is the same era that's been the backdrop of the various High Republic novels and comics, though those stories explore various facets of a conflict that unfolds about 200 years before the movies, sparking speculation amongst fans over whether Darth Plagueis might appear.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail image credit: Ario Anindito/Grzegorz Krysiński via Lucasfilm.

A Marvel MMO from the co-publisher of DC Universe Online has been cancelled just six months after it was revealed.

Announced in a blog post by parent company Enad Global 7 (EG7), as reported by GamesRadar, the game was cancelled after a "re-evaluation of the development risk profile, size of investment, and the long-term product portfolio strategy for the group."

Put simply, the MMO would be too expensive and unable to guarantee a certain amount of money in return, and EG7 no longer sees a Marvel MMO as a potentially successful piece of its business.

The Marvel MMO was only announced last November, and was being led by City of Heroes designer Jack Emmert at Daybreak Studios. No details about the game were ever announced but, according to previous reports, this is now the second Marvel MMO cancelled at Daybreak.

The resources - mainly an investment of 500 million Swedish krona (around $50 million) over three years - will now be put into "multiple, smaller size projects" including continued support for its other games like The Lord of the Rings Online and DC Universe Online alongside "new game opportunities" based on its own IPs.

There's no indication of what these new or ongoing projects may be or if Marvel will be involved at all. Despite EG7's DC Comics MMO being released more than a decade ago in 2011 and Lord of the Rings even earlier in 2007, both of those games still receive regular updates.

The Legion of Doom episode was announced for DC Universe Online in December while the Fate of Gundabad expansion was launched in November for The Lord of the Rings Online.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

A Marvel MMO from the co-publisher of DC Universe Online has been cancelled just six months after it was revealed.

Announced in a blog post by parent company Enad Global 7 (EG7), as reported by GamesRadar, the game was cancelled after a "re-evaluation of the development risk profile, size of investment, and the long-term product portfolio strategy for the group."

Put simply, the MMO would be too expensive and unable to guarantee a certain amount of money in return, and EG7 no longer sees a Marvel MMO as a potentially successful piece of its business.

The Marvel MMO was only announced last November, and was being led by City of Heroes designer Jack Emmert at Daybreak Studios. No details about the game were ever announced but, according to previous reports, this is now the second Marvel MMO cancelled at Daybreak.

The resources - mainly an investment of 500 million Swedish krona (around $50 million) over three years - will now be put into "multiple, smaller size projects" including continued support for its other games like The Lord of the Rings Online and DC Universe Online alongside "new game opportunities" based on its own IPs.

There's no indication of what these new or ongoing projects may be or if Marvel will be involved at all. Despite EG7's DC Comics MMO being released more than a decade ago in 2011 and Lord of the Rings even earlier in 2007, both of those games still receive regular updates.

The Legion of Doom episode was announced for DC Universe Online in December while the Fate of Gundabad expansion was launched in November for The Lord of the Rings Online.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Dead Space creator Glen Schofield recently shared his feelings on Dead Space Remake, including that he feels 'a bit weird' not being involved in the upcoming project.

Speaking with Game Informer, Schofield said that he took the announcement of Dead Space Remake "as a compliment" and is glad that the franchise was given "a second life" but was "still kind of bummed" to not be involved in the upcoming title.

"I took [the annoucnement] as a compliment. I still do take it as a compliment. I'm still kind of bummed about it too. There's this weird, weird thing, like you're not attached to your own game," Schofield told Game Informer. "It's a weird feeling. [...] They want to make a game better than the one you made."

Schofield served as the creator and executive producer of Dead Space (2008) while he was employed at Visceral Games and provided creative input on Dead Space 2 before leaving the studio to co-found Sledgehammer Games in 2009. However, Schofield was not involved with 2013's Dead Space 3.

The remake of his original game was announced last year, and Schofield made clear that he hopes the new Dead Space succeeds: "I do wish them well because I want to see the franchise live: that's where I want to be. I want to play it. I want them to do well. I'm glad the franchise is now given a second life."

Since his departure from EA, Schofield has repeatedly shared his thoughts about Dead Space. In 2019, during an interview with Ars Technica, Schofield opened up about the development of the original Dead Space, telling the outlet he enjoyed making the game, that it was a "real highlight in [his] career," and notes toward the end that hopefully, he would make "one of those games again."

While Schofield is not working on Dead Space, Striking Distance Studio's upcoming sci-fi survival horror game, The Callisto Protocol (which is part of the PUBG universe) bears major similarities to his previous creation. In the Game Informer article, Schofield addresses those similarities head-on: "I'm not going to shy away from a good idea because it was in one of my games. All game makers look at ideas from other games. Picasso said, 'good artists borrow, great artists steal'. Well, why not steal from myself?"

The Callisto Protocol is currently in development and aiming for a 2022 release. When Schofield announced it in late 2020, he told us that he is trying to make "the scariest game on next-gen platforms." The Dead Space Remake is slated to release on January 27, 2023.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Dead Space creator Glen Schofield recently shared his feelings on Dead Space Remake, including that he feels 'a bit weird' not being involved in the upcoming project.

Speaking with Game Informer, Schofield said that he took the announcement of Dead Space Remake "as a compliment" and is glad that the franchise was given "a second life" but was "still kind of bummed" to not be involved in the upcoming title.

"I took [the annoucnement] as a compliment. I still do take it as a compliment. I'm still kind of bummed about it too. There's this weird, weird thing, like you're not attached to your own game," Schofield told Game Informer. "It's a weird feeling. [...] They want to make a game better than the one you made."

Schofield served as the creator and executive producer of Dead Space (2008) while he was employed at Visceral Games and provided creative input on Dead Space 2 before leaving the studio to co-found Sledgehammer Games in 2009. However, Schofield was not involved with 2013's Dead Space 3.

The remake of his original game was announced last year, and Schofield made clear that he hopes the new Dead Space succeeds: "I do wish them well because I want to see the franchise live: that's where I want to be. I want to play it. I want them to do well. I'm glad the franchise is now given a second life."

Since his departure from EA, Schofield has repeatedly shared his thoughts about Dead Space. In 2019, during an interview with Ars Technica, Schofield opened up about the development of the original Dead Space, telling the outlet he enjoyed making the game, that it was a "real highlight in [his] career," and notes toward the end that hopefully, he would make "one of those games again."

While Schofield is not working on Dead Space, Striking Distance Studio's upcoming sci-fi survival horror game, The Callisto Protocol (which is part of the PUBG universe) bears major similarities to his previous creation. In the Game Informer article, Schofield addresses those similarities head-on: "I'm not going to shy away from a good idea because it was in one of my games. All game makers look at ideas from other games. Picasso said, 'good artists borrow, great artists steal'. Well, why not steal from myself?"

The Callisto Protocol is currently in development and aiming for a 2022 release. When Schofield announced it in late 2020, he told us that he is trying to make "the scariest game on next-gen platforms." The Dead Space Remake is slated to release on January 27, 2023.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Horror game developer Bloober Team was offered the chance to make a Saw video game, but opted to create its take on Blair Witch instead.

Speaking to IGN at Polish games conference Digital Dragons, Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno talked about working with licensors and explained how the Blair Witch project came to be – and what didn't happen as a result.

"I was working with our good partner, United Talent Agency," Babieno explained. "We were meeting many people in the industry from Hollywood. UTA is very recognizable and they have good relations with all major movie studios. We talked with [multiple studios], and some of them came to us and [said] 'Okay, guys, you are focusing on horror and we would like to work with you.' [But] the licensors were very straight: 'We would like to do this story. We would like to have the game in 2021 [to coincide with our movie launch]," and so on. We decided, 'Okay, [this is] not what we would like to do.'"

Bloober is widely rumored to be working on a Silent Hill game for Konami, with some reports centring on a remake of Silent Hill 2. Babieno previously told IGN that the studio insists on working on games it can make its own (including "the project we can't talk about", as Babieno put it), and one movie studio met that criteria, and offered some big opportunities:

"Lionsgate came to us and said, 'Guys, we love [Bloober's breakout game] Layers of Fear. We saw what you are doing with Observer, so we would like to work with you. We know that you would like to do your own games, so please, this is our list of our horror IPs; choose one.' We could [have chosen] Saw, which is more popular than Blair Witch, but we decided to take Blair Witch because the universe has many opportunities to build something new. That was the reason why we chose this project."

Babieno says being offered licenses like this wasn't a one-off, and that Bloober has received multiple offers to work on licensed horror games since 2019's Blair Witch – but has had to turn them down due to its other projects.

"Right now, to be honest, we consistently have requests from movie studios, or from other licensors, to work with them, because Bloober Team in some way is recognizable. Unfortunately, for almost one year, we have [had to say] 'pass' to almost everything, because we don't have capacity to do any more titles at one time."

Bloober is currently working on two major projects. One is a game made with Konami – which many believe to be a Silent Hill project – and the other is a new IP with publisher Private Division. Babieno says a third game is also in pre-production. The company has previously teased some kind of return to its Layers of Fear series.

Babieno says that Bloober is resisting growing too much simply to work on more licensed games: "We could do a third project. We could [build a] bigger team, but we don't want to, because we would like to focus on quality and the feeling that [our developers are] still, in some way, independent [and] still feel that they are working on their own title."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Horror game developer Bloober Team was offered the chance to make a Saw video game, but opted to create its take on Blair Witch instead.

Speaking to IGN at Polish games conference Digital Dragons, Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno talked about working with licensors and explained how the Blair Witch project came to be – and what didn't happen as a result.

"I was working with our good partner, United Talent Agency," Babieno explained. "We were meeting many people in the industry from Hollywood. UTA is very recognizable and they have good relations with all major movie studios. We talked with [multiple studios], and some of them came to us and [said] 'Okay, guys, you are focusing on horror and we would like to work with you.' [But] the licensors were very straight: 'We would like to do this story. We would like to have the game in 2021 [to coincide with our movie launch]," and so on. We decided, 'Okay, [this is] not what we would like to do.'"

Bloober is widely rumored to be working on a Silent Hill game for Konami, with some reports centring on a remake of Silent Hill 2. Babieno previously told IGN that the studio insists on working on games it can make its own (including "the project we can't talk about", as Babieno put it), and one movie studio met that criteria, and offered some big opportunities:

"Lionsgate came to us and said, 'Guys, we love [Bloober's breakout game] Layers of Fear. We saw what you are doing with Observer, so we would like to work with you. We know that you would like to do your own games, so please, this is our list of our horror IPs; choose one.' We could [have chosen] Saw, which is more popular than Blair Witch, but we decided to take Blair Witch because the universe has many opportunities to build something new. That was the reason why we chose this project."

Babieno says being offered licenses like this wasn't a one-off, and that Bloober has received multiple offers to work on licensed horror games since 2019's Blair Witch – but has had to turn them down due to its other projects.

"Right now, to be honest, we consistently have requests from movie studios, or from other licensors, to work with them, because Bloober Team in some way is recognizable. Unfortunately, for almost one year, we have [had to say] 'pass' to almost everything, because we don't have capacity to do any more titles at one time."

Bloober is currently working on two major projects. One is a game made with Konami – which many believe to be a Silent Hill project – and the other is a new IP with publisher Private Division. Babieno says a third game is also in pre-production. The company has previously teased some kind of return to its Layers of Fear series.

Babieno says that Bloober is resisting growing too much simply to work on more licensed games: "We could do a third project. We could [build a] bigger team, but we don't want to, because we would like to focus on quality and the feeling that [our developers are] still, in some way, independent [and] still feel that they are working on their own title."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.