the ravens. Morpheus seems to keep the ravens around out of some sort of unspoken need for companionship, though he also sends them on occasional missions. Matthew's word balloons and font style are scratchy and uneven, probably to represent a hoarse, cawing voice, and perhaps as an indicator of his crude, smart-aleck personality. Underneath his frequently irreverent manner, Matthew is actually very loyal to Dream, and he is one of the characters who takes it the hardest when Dream perishes, initially seeking release from his service, but eventually coming to terms with his loss and choosing to remain as Daniel's raven. Mervyn Pumpkinhead Mervyn "Merv" Pumpkinhead is Dream's cantankerous, cigar-smoking janitor: an animated scarecrow whose head is a jack-o'-lantern. He resembles Jack Pumpkinhead of L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Mervyn is first seen in Preludes and Nocturnes, driving a bus on which Dream travels. Thereafter Merv is in charge of the construction, maintenance, and demolition work in the Dreaming, though he sometimes complains that his job is superfluous because Dream can change any of the Dreaming at will. One issue of the Dreaming spin-off comic focuses on a dreamer who enjoys working under Merv's supervision. Mervyn was one of the few who took arms against the Furies in The Kindly Ones, but was easily killed. He is returned to life by the new Dream in The Wake. In a past incarnation shown in The Wake, Mervyn was seen to have had a turnip for a head instead of a pumpkin, as pumpkins were not then known in Europe. Kevin Smith voices Mervyn in the Audible adaptation. In the Netflix series, he is voiced by Mark Hamill. Minor dreams Brute and Glob: Two troublemaking nightmares who try to gain power during Dream's absence. They originally appeared in Jack Kirby's 1974 Sandman series, as sidekicks to the title character, and continued as such when Hector Hall became the Sandman in Infinity Inc.. In the original comics, Brute was similar to The Thing, shouted "It's clobberin' time!" and often referred to his Uncle Harry. In The Doll's House, it is revealed that they controlled the Sandmen in secret; whereupon Dream exiled them to "the darkness" (a place of imprisonment and, presumably, torture, within the Dreaming). Near the end of The Kindly Ones, the Furies tell Dream that they have released his prisoners from the darkness, but Brute and Glob are neither mentioned nor