Jack-o’-lanterns aren’t just for kids fumbling with safety knives anymore. The art and craft of carving the perfect pumpkin has gone from simple Halloween tradition to passionate pursuit, fueled by geeky obsessions and modern tech.

Take the ghoulish gourd disembowelers at Maniac Pumpkin Carvers.

Run by Parsons School of Design grads Marc Evan and Chris Soria, the New York-based operation cranks out custom pumpkins covered with intricate designs.

“Our inspiration comes from a steady flow of hot coffee and horror films,” said pumpkin artiste Evan. “We love carving images based off the movies and comics we grew up with. The movies that we can quote years later, that fueled our overactive imaginations and our scariest nightmares.”

“Our process starts with the design,” Evan said. “We sketch out ideas on paper and then freehand them onto the pumpkins. No patterns or stencils.”

“Where The Wild Things Are was such a formative book for both of us,” Evan said, “and with the release of the movie this year it was important for us to show our respect and tribute.”

“Just prior to Michael Jackson’s passing this year,” Evan said, “we had both been discussing how being kids in the early ’80s, our first memories of nightmares and being terrified were from seeing Thriller for the first time. So this year, we carved an homage to MJ.”

Star Wars has also been a big influence.

“My family and friends often chide me about my love for these characters because I have become so immersed in their lore over the years,” Evan told Wired.com last year for our Star Wars geek-o’-lantern gallery. “But at the same time they love how it has influenced my own creativity and work. As an homage to these great films and mythology I have carved my favorite Dark Lords of the Sith into pumpkins for Halloween.”

Gremlins gets the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers treatment. Mogwai like Gizmo look so cute until you get them wet.

The Magic School Bus , a series of children’s science books, goes under the knife for Maniac Pumpkin Carvers.

October is always a busy month for Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, for obvious reasons. Witches like this one and other Halloween classics show up in many of Evan and Soria’s glorious gourds.

Evan and his crew use a variety of gear to gut and decorate their pumpkins: linoleum cutters, X-Acto blades, clay tools, items from kids pumpkin-carving kits and “some homemade from bits of saw blades or other sharp objects,” Evan said.

“We carve the design in various stages, cutting to different depths, allowing different levels of translucency, to achieve the desired shading and light effects,” Evan said.

This New York City skyline showcases the multilayered approach.

Even The Simpsons ‘ money-grubbing Montgomery Burns would approve of Maniac Pumpkin Carvers’ booming business.

“The Yankee Stadium order that we just finished processing was an amazing challenge,” Evan said. “Fifty pumpkins, each with an intricate logo for the World Series. We bribed some friends with beer and pumpkin seeds to come be our diggers — scooping, scraping and gutting the pumpkins.

The last step is turning the intricately carved work of art into what Evan calls “a true lantern.”

“We get out our copper wire, wire strippers, fixtures and plugs and carefully wire our pumpkins so that they are true electrical lanterns that can be plugged into the wall,” he said.

“We try hard to keep the wet bits away from the metal bits…. So far we’re still here,” Evan said. “There is something really cool about seeing a real, live pumpkin glowing with a 40-watt bulb.”

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