Dream of the Rarebit Fiend

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was a newspaper comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay, begun September 10, 1904. The strip had no continuity or recurring characters. Instead, it had a recurring theme: a character would have a nightmare or other bizarre dream, usually after eating a Welsh rarebit—a cheese-on-toast dish. The character would awaken from the dream in the closing panel, regretting having eaten the rarebit. The dreams often revealed unflattering sides of the dreamers' psyches—their phobias, hypocrisies, discomforts, and dark fantasies.