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 a person would associate with having nightmares. McCay's most famous character, Little Nemo, first appeared in the first year of "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend", on December 10, 1904. In 1905, McCay had Nemo appear in his own strip in the "New York Herald". In comparison to "Little Nemo", the artwork of the "Rarebit Fiend" strips had minimal backgrounds, and were usually done from a static perspective with the main characters often in a fixed position. The content of "Rarebit Fiend" played a much bigger role than it did in "Little Nemo", whose focus was on beautiful visuals. The stories