Rarebit Fiend 1907 Winsor McCay

I am very pleased to add this 112 year old piece to my collection. I have been fortunate to own a nice McCay unpublished piece for a number of years but always wanted to add a Sammy Sneeze of Rarebit Fiend to my collection. This has been a very active goal in the past 2 years and I finally was offered this one that was buried in a collection for years. It comes to me in excellent condition on art board that looks closer to 40 years old rather than over 100. The line work is beautiful and delicate as is my experience with other works by McCay. I have had chances in the past to add a few but always passed as sometimes the content can be a little dull or confusing. This one was fun and quite animated and I like the theme of frustration with technology which is as relevant today as it was over a century ago. When it rains, it pours. Soon after purchasing this strip, another Rarebit Fiend I had been hoping to procure became available and so I will be adding a second one to my collection in a few months time.


The reoccurring theme in this series is the wild dreams people have after having ingested rarebit(innocuous Welsh dish with cheese, toast and ale) and it always end with the dream spiraling out of control only for them to wake up and swear off ever eating rarebit again. The dreams were often quite dark and in contrast to those he would later give to Little Nemo. The strips were not meant to be humerus but to reveal the dark side and insecurities of the upper middle class and acted as social commentary. The feature started in 1904 and ran until 1911 and appeared as frequently as 3-4 times per week. From 1911-1913 it reappeared with slightly different titles and there was a revival of the strip in 1923-25 by McCay with help from his son. Little Nemo's first appeared in this strip in 1905 before going on to have his own strip.