Dream of The Rarebit Fiend - Publishing History

Publishing History

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was McCay's longest running comic strip. McCay made more than 300 more Rarebit Fiend episodes than he made of the more famous Little Nemo. The first strip appeared on 10 September 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 was printed 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 up 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. Sometimes the strip's ideas were submitted by readers, which was acknowledged by McCay with a "thanks to..." on the strip beside his own signature. Amongst those credited were science fiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback.

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend ran until 1911. It was revived 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, the strip was revived 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 his son's name to some of his animation and editorial cartoons. Only seven examples of Rarebit Reveries are known, though it is nearly certain others were printed.