Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Dream of the Rarebit Fiend is a newspaper comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay, begun September 10, 1904. It was McCay's second successful strip, after "Little Sammy Sneeze" secured him a position on the cartoon staff of the "New York Herald". "Rarebit Fiend" appeared in the "Evening Telegram", a newspaper published by the "Herald". For contractual reasons, McCay signed the strip with the pen name "Silas". The strip had no continuity or recurring characters, but a recurring theme: a character has a nightmare or other bizarre dream, usually after eating a Welsh rarebit—a cheese-on-toast
Welsh rarebit calf prepared after the recipe of a she-banker." In H. G. Wells's 1898 short story "The Man Who Could Work Miracles (story)" Mr. Fotheringay helps himself to a couple of Welsh rarebits "out of vacancy". The comic strip "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend", by Winsor McCay, featured the fantastic dreams that various characters had because they ate a Welsh rarebit before going to bed. In "Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend", Season 3 Episode 24 of "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.", indulging in Welsh rarebit causes Gomer (and later Sgt. Carter) to sleepwalk. In the Neil Simon play Plaza Suite, Act I character