Saturday, June 20, 2015

Merv Pumpkinhead (illustrated by Emonic)

Merv Pumpkinhead is a pretty awesome character.

He first appeared in a single panel in Sandman # 5 (page 18, panel 3) driving a bus as Dream traveled to find his dream ruby.

He appeared again throughout the series, most notably in Brief Lives and The Kindly Ones as the maintenance man for The Dreaming. He often complained about being overworked with his various tasks including demolishing sections of Dream’s castle, moving volcanos or painting the sky.

In The Kindly Ones, Merv confronts The Kindly Ones with a machine gun and a box of ammunition, but his efforts to defend The Dreaming are futile and he is killed.

The Wake brings about a rebirth of The Dreaming and Dream of The Endless (also known as Daniel) resurrects Merv.

Aside from his appearances in Sandman, Merv Pumpkinhead has appeared in a few other Vertigo books including Lucifer (#10 and #42), House Of Mystery (# 42), The Books Of Magic (# 75) and several issues of The Dreaming. He has even stared in his one one-shot, Sandman Presents: Merv Pumpkinhead – Agent of Dream, where he briefly becomes a sort of secret agent, similar to the James Bond type of action hero.

Emonic did a wonderful job with Merv. He drew him in a fatigue type jacket as seen in The Kindly Ones, but he is clearly the Merv Pumpkinhead that we all know and love.

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