Mervyn Pumpkinhead is Dream's jaded, wise-cracking, cigar-smoking janitor. As his name implies, he has a pumpkin for a head, and his overall appearance is similar to that of a scarecrow combined with a jack-o'-lantern. He resembles Jack Pumpkinhead of L. Frank Baum's Oz books.
Mervyn is in charge of the construction, maintenance, and demolition work in the Dreaming, though he sometimes complains that his job is superfluous since Dream can change any of it at will.
History[]
In a past incarnation, shown in The Wake, Mervyn was seen to have had a turnip for a head instead of a pumpkin, since pumpkins were not known in Europe in the distant past.
Mervyn apparently drove a bus in dreams for a time during Dream's extended absence and is first seen briefly when Morpheus travels through the dreams of others on his way to Mayhew, "I travel briefly by bus...I sit at the front and talk to the driver." The driver of the bus was a pumpkin-headed, cigar-smoking figure.[1]
Mervyn was one of the few who actively took up arms to fight the Furies in The Kindly Ones and was destroyed. He was resurrected by the new Dream in The Wake
One issue of the "Dreaming" spin-off comic, focuses on a dreamer who enjoys working under Mervyn's supervision.