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 and had McCay give up comic strips in favor of editorial cartooning. McCay revived the strip in 1923–1925 as "Rarebit Reveries", of which few examples have survived. A number of film adaptations of "Rarebit Fiend" have appeared, including Edwin S. Porter's live-action "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend" in 1906, and four pioneering animated films by McCay himself: "How a Mosquito Operates" in 1912, and 1921's "Bug Vaudeville", "The Pet", and "The Flying House". The strip is said to have anticipated a number of recurring ideas in popular culture, such as marauding giant beasts damaging cities—as later popularized by "King Kong"