returnofpumpkinspice

Pumpkinspice is Back Again!

pumpkin-headed demon sprinkling spice on a moonlit night
| Mister Kessell

It’s late August and there’s a slight chill to the air, one of a few signs that my favorite season is near.

Merle the squirrel sniffs the air in autumn as leaves fall

I’m speaking about Fall of course, it’s the best, most spooky season and a time when I really come alive.

comic drawing of a bat boy lying in a pile of orange and red leaves in the woods
This is how I roll

One of the other indications of Autumn’s approach is the return of Pumpkinspice Everything!

a pumpkin headed demon returns to sprinkle pumpkinspice on food products in late august
Pumpkinspice is back! Again. And again and again.

I made this funny illustration five years ago poking fun at this phenomenon. I call it “The Return of Pumpkinspice.” I posted about it here on my blog.

It was both a critique of our consumer culture and an homage to Pumpkinhead, one of my favorite horror films of the 1980s. My illustration had a brief, nearly viral couple of weeks, which was exciting. Seeing something that I thought was funny also being liked and shared by hundreds of other strangers on the internet! Wowzers.

So why am I going on again about this Pumpkinspice thing? Word on the street is that Starbucks has released their Pumpkinspice creations earlier than usual this year. And I am here to continue to ridicule it while also enjoying the trendy flavor of the season.

What are your thoughts? Are you a fan of the spice?

In the years since, I’ve revived Pumpkinspice from time to time, most recently in this Batboy comic from last Fall.

batboy and merle love the smell of pumpkin spice in the fall
Pumpkinspice bringin’ back those spicy pants!

You’ll find this and many other hilarious comics in my latest Batboy Collection, Shvitzin’ to the Small Stuff which is available on Amazon.

Thumbnail of Book cover with Batboy dressed in 1980s gym shorts, leg warmers and headband doing aerobic exercise and sweating puddles. Title of the book is "Shvitzin' to the Small Stuff: Yet another Batboy Comic Collection by M. R. Kessell

Additionally, I have one signed and numbered, limited edition “Return of Pumpkinspice” 11×14 Print available in my Etsy Shop. Grab it now before it’s gone FOREVER!

a pumpkin headed demon sprinkles pumpkin spice on an assortment of coffee and food products
The last 11X14 Print available on Etsy

You can also grab Pumpkinspice as a T-shirt in my Amazon shop, or as a mug or a print here in my Redbubble Shop.

So will we see yet another incarnation of that evil Spice Demon in years to come? Probably, maybe, most definitely, yes!

Until next time, my friends, MAY THE SPICE BE WITH YOU!

M. R. Kessell is a dark artist and a writer/illustrator of silly comics. Check out his portfolio here. You can follow him on Instagram. Stop by and say HEY!

Some Art and Updates

| Mister Kessell

Forgive me followers, I have sinned, it’s been about six months since my last blog post.

I set myself some ambitious goals at the start of the year. But then I promptly forgot them, made some new goals, gave up on those, circled back to the first ones, fell into a creative slump, told myself that I need to just read more, got a second creative wind, decided to study French (pas pour la première fois), thought more about the original goals, binge-watched the second season of Mindhunter on Netflix, I had a turkey sandwich, and now I am here. Maybe just a quick nap first…

I’m not going to lie, the past six months haven’t been completely devoid of creative work, but I always feel like I should be doing more.

Sometimes I feel like I’m on the wrong path.

I’d like to share some stuff I’ve been working on recently. That hideous scene of eldritch horrors above is one of a handful of things added to my portfolio page. If anyone is in need of any Lovecraftian artwork for a book cover or to accompany any short stories, please let me know. I’d love to find some creative people to collaborate with!

I go through periods in which I focus on one medium to the detriment of all others. You could say I become obsessed. I recently decided again to work on this polymer clay maquette above, which I had started about three years ago. This is one of my latest goals, to finish this vulture goddess sculpt soon. We’ll see what happens.

A little time-lapse sneak peek.

The video above is my most recent work-in-progress, a follow up to probably my favorite piece from last year. Definitely the spiciest from last year. This is one of the last steps after the ink and watercolors have dried, the removal of the masking fluid. I should probably start the time-lapse recording a bit earlier next time, I’m just never confident enough that the piece will be successful.

Stay tuned for the finished piece and hopefully some other new weirdness.

À bientôt!