Warning: reading this Associated Press story about the guy who might be the world’s best pumpkin carver will either inspire you to carve a gorgeous jack-o’-lantern in the few days left before Halloween, or make you toss the one you already carved into a woodchipper. Either reaction would be appropriate once you’ve seen some of the work of the guy known as the “Picasso of pumpkin carvers.”

Mike Valladao is a cybersecurity systems engineer. But when the fall season rolls around, he transforms into his alter ego, Farmer Mike, a chisel-wielding maniac who has spent the past four decades turning giant pumpkins into stunning, sometimes grotesque, Halloween masterpieces.

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According to the AP report, Valladao has no formal art training. He’s just a guy who takes the weird facial features he encounters in day-to-day life and then transposes them into the faces of dragons, pop culture icons, and original characters.…