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 Nemo", was likely exposed to "Rarebit Fiend", which appeared in "The San Francisco Examiner", which Barks read growing up. Several episodes of Barks's Donald Duck strips appear to have taken their subjects from "Rarebit Fiend". Many scenes from animated films by Tex Avery from between 1943 and 1954 are said to show clearly a "Rarebit Fiend" influence. Science fiction illustrator Frank R. Paul painted a number of pulp magazine covers influenced by "Rarebit Fiend". Art Spiegelman paid parodic homage to "Rarebit Fiend" in his 1974 strip "Real Dream". In 1991, Rick Veitch began producing short comics based on his dreams.