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 as they had been widely reported and talked about in the New York newspaper world McCay was a part of. "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" was McCay's longest running comic strip. He made over 300 more "Rarebit Fiend" episodes than he made of the more famous "Little Nemo". The first strip appeared on September 10, 1904, in the "New York Herald", a few months after the first appearance of McCay's "Little Sammy Sneeze". It was McCay's second successful newspaper strip, after "Sammy Sneeze" landed him a position on the cartooning staff of the "Herald". "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" ran