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
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) (particularly the pool of tears scene, which seems related to the flood of sweat in one early "Rarebit Fiend" strip), and a variety of dream cartoons and illustrations that appeared in various periodicals McCay was likely familiar with. The most probable immediate influence on the strip was "Welsh Rarebit Tales" (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins. Cummins stated he drew inspiration for this collection of 15 science fiction stories from nightmares brought on by eating Welsh rarebit and lobster—making further likely the influence, as several post-"Herald" strips from 1911 and 1912 were titled "Dream