Dream of the Rarebit Fiend He addressed religious leaders, alcoholism, homelessness, political speeches, suicide, fashion, and other topics, whereas his other strips were fantasy or had seemingly vague, timeless backgrounds. The strip referenced contemporary events such as the 1904 election of Theodore Roosevelt; the recently built Flatiron Building (1902) and St. Regis Hotel (1904) in New York City; and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The rarebit is a dish typically made with rich cheese thinned with ale and served melted on toast with cayenne and mustard mixed in. McCay used it despite its innocuousness—cultural theorist Scott Bukatman states rarebit was not the sort of dish
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend "Daydreams and Nightmares" (Fantagraphics, 1988/2006; editor Richard Marschall), a collection of miscellaneous work by McCay. Checker Books reprinted many of the "Rarebit Fiend" strips over eight volumes of the series "Winsor McCay: Early Works" and in 2006 reprinted 183 of the color Saturday strips in "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend: The Saturdays". The Checker books reprinted all but about 300 of the known "Rarebit Fiend" strips. In July 2007, German art historian Ulrich Merkl self-published a , 464-page volume called "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend", reproducing 369 of the strips in full size. Previous reprintings of the strip reduced the