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 dish. The character awakens in the closing panel and regrets having eaten the rarebit. The dreams often reveal unflattering sides of the dreamers' psyches—their phobias, hypocrisies, discomforts, and dark fantasies. This was in great contrast to the colorful fantasy dreams in McCay's signature strip Little Nemo, which he began in 1905. Whereas children were Nemo's target audience, McCay aimed Rarebit Fiend at adults.
The popularity of Rarebit Fiend and Nemo led to McCay gaining a contract in 1911 with William Randolph Hearst's chain of newspapers with a star's salary. His editor there thought McCay's highly skilled cartooning "serious, not funny", 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 and Godzilla.
and 19 Related for: Dream of the Rarebit Fiend information
DreamoftheRarebitFiend is a newspaper comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay, begun September 10, 1904. It was McCay's second successful strip...
of rarebit immediately before sleeping in order to give themselves inspiring dreams. Winsor McCay's comic strip series DreamoftheRarebitFiend recounts...
early comic strip by McCay, DreamoftheRarebitFiend, before receiving his own spin-off series, Little Nemo in Slumberland. The full-page weekly strip depicted...
contractual reasons, he worked under the pen name Silas on the comic strip DreamoftheRarebitFiend. From a young age, McCay was a quick, prolific, and technically...
the end of Winsor McCay's 1921 animated short DreamsoftheRarebitFiend: The Pet, in which a mysterious giant animal starts destroying the city, until...
1905, episode ofDreamoftheRarebitFiend in which a Brontosaurus skeleton took part in a horse race, and a May 25, 1913, RarebitFiend episode in which...
animation with the film Little Nemo (1911), and followed its success by adapting an episode of his comic strip DreamoftheRarebitFiend into How a Mosquito...
Dream oftheRarebitFiend Jiggs dinner List of American sandwiches List of sandwiches Sandwich loaf, a type of party food made from a whole loaf of bread...
episode for September 28, 1907, of his comic strip DreamoftheRarebitFiend, and again in the episode for November 10, 1908, of A Pilgrim's Progress by Mister...
earliest recorded occurrences ofthe camera technique is to be found in the Edwin S. Porter American film Dreamof a RarebitFiend (1906): itself based on Winsor...
dissolves. The CNC analysis notes that although this title suggests Dreamof a RarebitFiend, a 1906 American trick film by Edwin S. Porter, the plots are...
Herald, where McCay was on the staff. It was McCay's first successful comic strip; he followed it with DreamoftheRarebitFiend later in 1904, and his best-known...
An anxiety dream is an unpleasant dream which can be more disturbing than a nightmare. Anxiety dreams are characterized by the feelings of unease, distress...
psyches in the dreams of Winsor McCay's Dream of theRarebitFiend, the irrational, shifting landscapes of George Herriman's Krazy Kat, and Superman's obsessively...
protagonist's state of consciousness. Dreamsof a RarebitFiend (1904–1921) and Little Nemo (1905–1913) by Winsor McCay (also his animated films) The Sandman (DC...
Ransom 1906 – The Story ofthe Kelly Gang, The Merry Frolics of Satan, The '?' Motorist, Dreamof a RarebitFiend, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces; Nordisk...
titled Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends, a reference to Winsor McCay's classic newspaper comic, DreamoftheRarebitFiend. The series first appeared as backup...
Train Robbery, Dreamof a RarebitFiend, Tess ofthe Storm Country Martin Ritt: Edge ofthe City, Hud, Sounder, Norma Rae Preston Sturges: The Lady Eve, Sullivan's...
Global Information