''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' is a newspaper
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
by American cartoonist
Winsor McCay
Zenas Winsor McCay ( – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip ''Little Nemo'' (1905–14; 1924–26) and the animated film ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). For contractual reasons, he worke ...
, begun September 10, 1904. It was McCay's second successful strip, after ''
Little Sammy Sneeze
''Little Sammy Sneeze'' was a comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. In each episode the titular Sammy sneezed himself into an awkward or disastrous predicament. The strip ran from July 24, 1904 until December 9, 1906 in the ''New Yo ...
'' secured him a position on the cartoon staff of the ''
New York Herald
The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''.
His ...
''. ''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
Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit ( or ) is a dish consisting of a hot Cheese sauce, cheese-based sauce served over slices of Toast (food), toasted bread. The original 18th-century name of the dish was the jocular "Welsh rabbit", which was later fo ...
—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'
psyche
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή).
Psyche may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...
s—their
phobia
A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avo ...
s,
hypocrisies, discomforts, and dark fantasies. This was in great contrast to the colorful fantasy dreams in McCay's signature strip ''
Little Nemo
Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'', before receiving his own spin-off series, ''Little Nemo in Slumberland''. The f ...
'', 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
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
'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
''How a Mosquito Operates'' is a 1912 silent animated film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. The six-minute short depicts a giant mosquito tormenting a sleeping man. The film is one of the earliest works of animation, and its technical qu ...
'' 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
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' and ''
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...
''.
Overview
![Welsh rarebit (3436445626)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Welsh_rarebit_%283436445626%29.jpg)
Winsor McCay first produced ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' in 1904, a year before the dream romps of his ''Little Nemo'' and a full generation before the artists of the
Surrealist movement
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
unleashed the
unconscious
Unconscious may refer to:
Physiology
* Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli
Psychology
* Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...
on the public. The strip had no recurring characters, but followed a theme: after eating a Welsh rarebit, the day's protagonist would be subject to the darker side of his psyche. Typically, the strip would begin with an absurd situation which became more and more absurd until the Fiend—the dreamer—awakened in the final panel. Some situations were merely silly: elephants falling from the ceiling, or two women's mink coats having a fight. Other times, they could be more disturbing: characters finding themselves
dismembered
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...
,
buried alive
Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive.
Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally on the mistaken assumption that they are dead, or intentionally as a form of t ...
from a first-person perspective or a child's mother being planted and becoming a tree. In some strips the Fiend was a spectator watching fantastic or horrible things happen to someone close to . The protagonists are typically, but not always, of America’s growing middle-class urban population whom McCay subjects to fears of public humiliation, or loss of social esteem or respectability, or just the uncontrollably weird nature of being.
''Rarebit Fiend'' was the only one of McCay's strips in which he approached social or political topics, or dealt with contemporary life. 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
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
; the recently built
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, steel-framed landmarked building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the eponymous Flatiron District neighborhood of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New ...
(1902) and
St. Regis Hotel
St. Regis Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel chain owned and managed by Marriott International.
History
In 1904, John Jacob Astor built the St. Regis New York as a sister property to his part-owned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Exhibiting luxury and ...
(1904) in New York City; and the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904–05.
![Little Nemo alone2 modified](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Little_Nemo_alone2_modified.png)
The rarebit is a dish typically made with rich cheese thinned with
ale
Ale is a Type of beer, type of beer brewed using a Warm fermentation, warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typicall ...
and served melted on toast with
cayenne
Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...
and
mustard
Mustard may refer to:
Food and plants
* Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment
* Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment
** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...
mixed in. McCay used it despite its innocuousness—cultural theorist
Scott Bukatman
Scott Bukatman is a cultural theorist and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. Bukatman's research examines how popular media (film, comics) and genres (science fiction, musicals, superhero narratives) "mediate between new ...
states rarebit was not the sort of dish 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 were self-contained, whereas the ''Nemo'' story continued from week to week. The dreams in ''Nemo'' were aimed at children, but ''Rarebit Fiend'' had adult-oriented subjects—social embarrassment,
fear of dying or going insane, and so on. Some of the dreams in both strips were
wish-fulfillment fantasies.
Unlike most comic strips from the time, ''Rarebit Fiend'' is not (directly) humorous or
escapist. The strips highlight readers' darker selves—hypocrisies, deceitfulness, phobias, and discomfort. They offer often biting social commentary and show marital, money, and religious matters in a negative light. McCay had an interest in pushing formal boundaries, and playful
self-referentiality plays a role in many of the strips; characters sometimes refer to McCay's alter-ego "Silas" or to the reader. Though frequent in ''Rarebit Fiend'', this self-referentiality does not appear in McCay's other strips.
In contrast to the skilled artwork, the lettering in the
dialogue balloons, as in McCay's other work, was awkward and could approach illegibility, especially in reproductions, where the artwork has normally been greatly reduced in size. McCay seemed to show little regard for the dialogue balloons, their content, and their placement in the composition. They tend to contain repetitive monologues expressing the increasing distress of the speakers, and show that McCay's gift was in the visual and not the verbal.
Background
![Winsor McCay 1906](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Winsor_McCay_1906.jpg)
McCay began cartooning in the 1890s and had a prolific output published in magazines and newspapers. He became known for his ability to draw quickly, a talent he often employed during
chalk talk
A chalk talk is an illustrated performance in which the speaker draws pictures to emphasize lecture points and create a memorable and entertaining experience for listeners. Chalk talks differ from other types of illustrated talks in their use of r ...
s on the
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
stage (alongside the likes of
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...
and
W. C. Fields). Before ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' and ''Little Nemo'', McCay had shown an interest in the topic of dreams. Some of his earlier works, numbering at least 10 regular comic strips, had titles such as ''Daydreams'' and ''It Was Only a Dream''. McCay's were not the first dream-themed comic strips to be published: McCay's employer, the ''New York Herald'', had printed at least three such strips, beginning with Charles Reese's ''Drowsy Dick'' in 1902.
Psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
and
dream interpretation
Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. Although associated with some forms of psychotherapy, there is no reliable evidence that understanding or interpreting dreams has a positive impact on one's mental health.
In m ...
had begun to enter the public consciousness with the 1900 publication of
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
's ''
Interpretation of Dreams
''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (german: Die Traumdeutung) is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what w ...
''.
McCay first proposed a strip in which a tobacco fiend finds himself at the North Pole, unable to secure a cigarette and a light. In the last panel he awakens to find it a dream. The ''Herald'' asked McCay to make a series of the strip, but with a Welsh rarebit theme instead of tobacco, and McCay complied. The strip appeared in a ''Herald'' subsidiary, the ''Evening Telegram'', and the ''Herald''s editor required McCay to use a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
for the strip work to keep it separate from his other work. McCay signed ''Rarebit Fiend'' strips as "Silas", a name he borrowed from a neighborhood garbage cart driver. After switching to William Randolph Hearst's ''
New York American
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'' newspaper in 1911, McCay dropped the "Silas" pseudonym and signed his work with his own name.
McCay married in 1891, and the marriage was not a happy one. According to McCay biographer John Canemaker, McCay depicts marriage in ''Rarebit Fiend'' as "a minefield of hypocrisy, jealousy, and misunderstanding". McCay was a short man, barely five feet () tall. He was dominated by his wife, who stood as tall as he was. Images of small, shy men dominated by their taller or fatter wives appear frequently in ''Rarebit Fiend''. Gigantism, with characters overwhelmed by rapidly growing elements, was another recurring motif, perhaps as compensation on McCay's part for a sense of smallness. McCay's brother Arthur had been put in a mental asylum, which may have inspired the themes of insanity that are common in the strip.
![Dream of the Rarebit Fiend 1905-02-25 detail](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Dream_of_the_Rarebit_Fiend_1905-02-25_detail.jpg)
Despite the strip's bleak view, McCay's work was so popular that William Randolph Hearst hired him in 1911 with a star's salary. Hearst editor
Arthur Brisbane
Arthur Brisbane (December 12, 1864 – December 25, 1936) was one of the best known American newspaper editors of the 20th century as well as a real estate investor. He was also a speech writer, orator, and public relations professional who coach ...
deemed McCay's work "serious, not funny", and had the cartoonist give up his comic strips (including ''Rarebit Fiend'' and ''Nemo'') to work full-time illustrating editorials.
Influences
![John Tenniel - Alice in Wonderland - Pool of Tears](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/John_Tenniel_-_Alice_in_Wonderland_-_Pool_of_Tears.jpg)
Scholars such as Claude Moliterni, Ulrich Merkl, Alfredo Castelli, and others have located possible influences. These include
Edward Lear
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...
's popular ''The Book of Nonsense'' (1870),
Gelett Burgess
Frank Gelett Burgess (January 30, 1866 – September 18, 1951) was an American artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. An important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclast ...
' ''The Burgess Nonsense Book'' (1901),
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
's ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...
'' (1865) (particularly the pool of tears scene, which seems related to the flood of sweat in one early ''Rarebit Fiend'' strip), and a variety of dream cartoons and illustrations that appeared in various periodicals McCay was likely familiar with.
The most probable influence on the strip was ''Welsh Rarebit Tales'' (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins. Cummins stated he drew inspiration for this collection of fifteen
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
stories from nightmares brought on by eating Welsh rarebit and lobster. Several of McCay's post-''Herald'' strips from 1911 and 1912 were even titled ''Dream of a Lobster Fiend''.
Other influences have been established:
H. G. Wells,
L. Frank Baum's ''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after s ...
'' (1900),
J. M. Barrie's ''
Peter and Wendy
''Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' or ''Peter and Wendy'', often known simply as ''Peter Pan'', is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous li ...
'' (1904),
Carlo Collodi
Carlo Lorenzini (24 November 1826 – 26 October 1890), better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi (), was an Italian author, humourist, and journalist, widely known for his fairy tale novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio''.
Early life
Col ...
's ''
The Adventures of Pinocchio
''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' ( ; it, Le avventure di Pinocchio ; commonly shortened to ''Pinocchio'') is a children's fantasy novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It is about the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocc ...
'' (1883),
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
's
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
story "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" (1889),
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especi ...
's ''
Quo Vadis
''Quō vādis?'' (, ) is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you marching?". It is also commonly translated as "Where are you going?" or, poetically, "Whither goest thou?"
The phrase originates from the Christian tradition regarding Saint Pete ...
'' (1896),
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
's ''
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' (1886), and
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
's "The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note" (1893).
McCay never acknowledged the influence of Sigmund Freud, whose ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' had been published in 1900. McCay scholar Ulrich Merkl says it was likely McCay was aware of the Viennese doctor's theories, as they had been widely reported and talked about in the New York newspaper world in which was McCay was a part.
Publishing history
''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 in the ''Evening Telegram'', which was published by the ''Herald'' at the time.
The strip appeared two to three times a week. It typically filled a quarter of a newspaper page on weekdays, and half a page on Saturdays. The strip normally appeared in black-and-white, but 29 of the strips appeared in color throughout 1913, run weekly in the ''Herald''. These were strips drawn between 1908 and 1911 which the ''Evening Telegram'' had neglected to print. McCay sometimes encouraged readers to submit dream ideas, to be sent care of the ''Herald'' to "Silas the Dreamer". McCay acknowledged the submissions he accepted with a "thanks to ..." on the strip beside his own signature. Among those credited were science fiction pioneer
Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publ ...
.
''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' initial run continued until 1911. It appeared again in various papers between 1911 and 1913 under other titles, such as ''Midsummer Day Dreams'' and ''It Was Only a Dream''. From 1923 to 1925 McCay revived the strip under the title ''Rarebit Reveries''. Though signed "Robert Winsor McCay Jr." (McCay's son), the strips appear to be in McCay's own hand, with the possible exception of the lettering. McCay had also signed some of his animation and editorial cartoons with his son's name. As of 2007 only seven examples of ''Rarebit Reveries'' were known, though it is nearly certain others were printed.
Collections
![Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend (Stokes 1905) cover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Dreams_of_the_Rarebit_Fiend_%28Stokes_1905%29_cover.jpg)
The earliest collection, titled ''Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend'', appeared in 1905 from
Frederick A. Stokes and reprinted 61 of the strips.
Dover Publications
Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...
reprinted this collection in 1973 in a 10% enlarged edition with new introductory material. The Dover edition dropped the final strip from the original collection as it contained
ethnic humor
An ethnic joke is a remark aiming at humor relating to an ethnic, racial or cultural group, often referring to an ethnic stereotype of the group in question for its punchline.
Perceptions of ethnic jokes are ambivalent. Christie Davies gives ex ...
that the publisher believed would not be to the taste of a 1970s audience.
''Rarebit Fiend'' examples appear in ''Daydreams and Nightmares'' (
Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint.
History
Founding
Fantagraphics was found ...
, 1988/2006; editor
Richard Marschall
Richard "Rick" Marschall (born February 3, 1949) Miller, John Jackson"Comics Industry Birthdays" ''Comics Buyer's Guide'', June 10, 2005. Accessed January 10, 2011. . is a writer/editor and comic strip historian, described by ''Bostonia'' magazin ...
), 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 strips to about a third of their originally published size, resulting in loss of detail and making the lettering hard to read. The size of the book made automatic
binding impossible, so it had to be bound by hand. The book was limited to 1000 copies, and a DVD was included with
scans of the 821 known installments of the strip, the complete text of the book, a ''
catalogue raisonné
A ''catalogue raisonné'' (or critical catalogue) is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist either in a particular medium or all media. The works are described in such a way that they may be reliably identified ...
'' of the strips, and a video of an example of McCay's animation. The sources of the strips were from Merkl's personal collection, the
Cartoon Research Library
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Libra ...
of the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
, and
microfilms
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...
purchased from the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
containing the complete ''New York Evening Journal'' run of the strip. Merkl has said that, on average, six hours were required per strip for scanning and
restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
. The book also featured two essays by Italian comics editor Alfredo Castelli and one by
Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression, and he is fr ...
, former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
A few examples from ''Dream of the Rarebit fiend'' were reprinted in ''Forgotten Fantasy: Sunday Comics 1900-1915'', published in 2011 by
Sunday Press Books
Sunday Press Books is an American publisher of comic strip reprint collections founded in 2005 by Peter Maresca. The company is known as a respected reprinter of comic strips and has to date won three Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards. Since 202 ...
. ISBN
Other media
McCay's work was very popular. It was adapted to film by McCay and others, and was optioned for Broadway. A "comic opera or musical extravanganza" called ''Dream of the Welsh Rarebit Fiend'' went unproduced, though McCay signed a contract to collaborate on it with music by Max Hirschfeld and lyrics by George Henry Payne and Robert Gilbert Welch.
Film
''Dream of a Rarebit Fiend'' (1906)
Film pioneer
Edwin S. Porter produced a seven-minute live-action film adaptation called ''The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend'' in 1906 for the
Edison Company
The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 188 ...
. The Fiend was played by John P. Brawn, who is tormented by imps in his bed, which flies through the air and leaves him hanging from a steeple—a scene similar to that of an early strips that ran on January 28, 1905.
Animation by McCay
McCay produced four hand-drawn animated films based upon his ''Rarebit Fiend'' series:
=''How a Mosquito Operates'' (1912)
=
Put together in December 1911, and released in 1912, McCay's
second film (also known as ''The Story of a Mosquito'') is one of the earliest examples of line-drawn animation. A giant top-hatted mosquito flies in through a window to feed on a man in bed, who tries in vain to defend himself. The mosquito drinks itself so full that it explodes. Rather than expanding like a balloon, the mosquito fills up in a naturalistic fashion according to its body structure. The idea for the film came from a ''Rarebit Fiend'' strip published on June 5, 1909. McCay biographer John Canemaker commends McCay for his ability to imbue the mosquito with character and a personality.
=''Bug Vaudeville'' (1921)
=
The series title is pluralized for this film. In the fantasy ''Bug Vaudeville'', a tramp comes out from a group of meticulously drawn trees and falls asleep, muttering that cheese cakes give him strange dreams. A series of bugs put on performance after performance against highly detailed and realistic backgrounds. The performance ends with a spider who grabs a silhouetted member of the audience and eats him whole.
The film was released around September 12, 1921, and draws from McCay's experiences in the worlds of the circus and vaudeville. The film is presented as a vaudeville show, though without the stage interaction McCay used in ''
Gertie the Dinosaur
''Gertie the Dinosaur'' is a 1914 animated short film by American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur. McCay first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaude ...
''. Film critic
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism.
Early life
Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Katav ...
praised ''Bug Vaudeville'' as his favorite of McCay's films for "the linear expressiveness of the drawings and the intuitive rhythm of the acts". Sarris wrote that a director like
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...
"would be honored by such insight into the ritual of performance".
=''The Pet'' (1921)
=
The series title is pluralized for this title. ''The Pet'' depicts a couple who adopt a mysterious animal with an insatiable appetite. It consumes its milk, the house cat, the house's furnishings, rat poison, and passing vehicles, including airplanes and a blimp, while growing larger and larger. As it wanders among the skyscrapers of the city a swarm of airplanes and
zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
s gather to bomb the beast.
A ''Rarebit Fiend'' strip from March 8, 1905, inspired ''The Pet'', which was released around September 19, 1921. The dark film was the last over which McCay had "total creative control", according to McCay biographer
John Canemaker
John Cannizzaro Jr. (born 1943), better known as John Canemaker, is an American independent animator, animation historian, author, teacher and lecturer. In 1980, he began teaching and developing the animation program at New York University, Tisch S ...
. Cartoonist
Stephen R. Bissette
Stephen R. Bissette (born March 14, 1955) is an American comic book artist, editor, and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He is known for working with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC Comics series ''Swamp Thing'' in ...
called it "the first-ever 'giant monster attacking a city' motion picture ever made".
=''The Flying House'' (1921)
=
Against the backdrop of the rapidly urbanizing United States of the 1910s and 1920s, one house from the artificial grid of modern, planned America takes flight in the dream of a woman who has feasted on Welsh rarebit. ''The Flying House'' is rendered in meticulous realistic detail. The house is conventional in every respect—until the viewer reaches the attic, where the woman's husband is seen tending an enormous engine. He attaches a propeller to a shaft out front of the house, and tells his wife that his actions are in reaction to their landlord's intention to evict them over nonpayment. He says he plans to "steal the house", and the couple fly away to find a place where their landlord will never find them—a swamp, the ocean, even the moon, where they are chased off by the
Man in the Moon
In many cultures, several pareidolic images of a human face, head or body are recognized in the disc of the full moon; they are generally known as the Man in the Moon. The images are based on the appearance of the dark areas (known as lunar mar ...
with a flyswatter. The film self-consciously directs the viewers to notice the quality and accuracy of the animation when the house takes off into space, calling attention to the "remarkable piece of animation which follows", accurately showing the revolutions of the Earth and Moon and the "beautiful constellation of
Orion". In the end, the house is struck by a military rocket, bringing the nightmare to an end as the woman awakens in her bed.
The title card reverts to the singular "Dream" for the series title and credits Winsor ''Selias'' McCay as the producer. The film was released on September 26, 1921, and was credited to McCay's son
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, though Canemaker states it is unlikely the elder McCay was not involved. A 1921 ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' review found the film "interesting because of its excellent workmanship and fantastic character" though it was "not as brightly humorous" as it could be. Film critic
Richard Eder
Richard Gray Eder (August 16, 1932 – November 21, 2014) was an American film reviewer and a drama critic.
Life and career
For 20 years, he was variously a foreign correspondent, a film reviewer and the drama critic for ''The New York Times''. ...
contrasted the film's realistic nightmarishness with the more innocent qualities that came to be associated with American cartoons. In 2011, animator
Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short '' Your Face'' and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting ...
restored the film, using
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
to fund the project. He had the film
colorized
Film colorization (American English; or colourisation [British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia tone, sepia, or other monochrome moving-pi ...
, and actors
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker, who rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in ''Full Metal Jacket''. His other film roles include the title character ...
and
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson (born December 29, 1959) is an American actress. She has starred in numerous leading and supporting roles in a variety of films ranging from independent film features to major film studio productions. Her accolades incl ...
provided voices.
Music
The Edison Military Band performed a piece called "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" on an
Edison cylinder
Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engra ...
(Edison 9585) in 1907, written by Thomas W. Thurban. The music was likely inspired by Porter's 1906 film, and may have been intended to accompany it. The piece was written for an 18–20-piece band, and has been recorded numerous times.
Legacy
![KingKongStyleA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/KingKongStyleA.jpg)
''Rarebit Fiend'' set up a formula which McCay was to use in the better-known ''Little Nemo''. A large number of the Nemo strips used ideas recycled from ''Rarebit Fiend'', such as the October 31, 1907, "walking bed" episode, which was used in the July 26, 1908, episode of ''Little Nemo''.
Comics scholar Jeet Heer called ''Rarebit Fiend'' "perhaps the most bizarre newspaper feature in American history". Merkl notes examples of the strip presaging ideas and scenes in later media: the strip includes scenes in which a man kicks a dog, slaps a woman, beats a blind man, and throws another woman out a window, as in
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...
's film ''
L'Age d'Or
''L'Age d'Or'' (french: L'Âge d'Or, ), commonly translated as ''The Golden Age'' or ''Age of Gold'', is a 1930 French surrealist satirical comedy film directed by Luis Buñuel about the insanities of modern life, the hypocrisy of the sexual m ...
'' (1930); and giant characters let loose in the big city, climbing and damaging buildings and subway trains, as in ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' (1933). Merkl compares the strip for March 9, 1907, in which a child's bedroom becomes a lion-infested jungle, to the 1950
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...
story "
The Veldt", and the strip from September 26, 1908, depicting a stretchable face, to
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
's surrealist painting ''Soft self-portrait with fried bacon'' (1941) and the
cosmetic surgeries in
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
's ''
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
''. Stephen R. Bissette compares a strip featuring elevators flying from buildings and other scenes to the 2005
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
take on ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''.
The strip was most likely an influence on episodes of
Frank King's early comic strip ''Bobby Make-Believe''. Many scholars believe that
Carl Barks
Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...
, a professed fan of ''Little Nemo'', was likely exposed to ''Rarebit Fiend'', which appeared in ''
The San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
'', which Barks read growing up. Several episodes of Barks's
Donald Duck strips appear to have taken their subjects from ''Rarebit Fiend''. Many scenes from animated films by
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...
from between 1943 and 1954 are said to show clearly a ''Rarebit Fiend'' influence. Science fiction illustrator
Frank R. Paul painted a number of
pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
covers influenced by ''Rarebit Fiend''.
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade (comics maga ...
paid parodic homage to ''Rarebit Fiend'' in his 1974 strip "
Real Dream". In 1991,
Rick Veitch
Richard Veitch (born May 7, 1951) is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.
Early life
Rick Veitch is a native of the small town of Bellows Falls, Vermont. One of six children, he w ...
began producing short comics based on his dreams. Beginning in 1994, he put out twenty-one issues of ''Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends'' from his own King Hell Press.
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
published a poem titled "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend."
References
Works cited
Books
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External links
Index of first lines in ''Rarebit Fiend'' stripsby Teary Eyes Anderson
Strips
Complete scans from the Ulrich Merkl DVDat The
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Archivesof ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' a
Comic Strip Library
Other
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The Burgess Nonsense Book' (1901) by Gelett Burgess at the Internet Archive
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Welsh Rarebit Tales' (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins at the Internet Archive
{{featured article
1904 comics debuts
American comic strips
Comic strips by Winsor McCay
1925 comics endings
Fantasy comics
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Comics adapted into animated series
Comics about dreams
Public domain comics
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