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HOME - THE DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND
The complete DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND (1904-1913) by Winsor McCay 'Silas' scroll down
This is the book everyone has been dreaming of!
DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND was a comic strip published in American newspapers from 1904 to 1913.
Each episode presented the dream of some poor soul who had the misfortune of partaking of  Welsh Rarebit (a melted
cheese toast) before retiring, a decision that resulted in unusual and fantastic dreams. In the last panel, the dreaming victim
awakened, vowing never to partake of  Rarebit before bedtime again.
The strip was written and drawn by Winsor McCay (1867-1934), famous for his “Little Nemo in Slumberland”.
Other than Little Nemo, which was addressed to children, and mainly lived from its spectacular layouts, DREAM OF THE
RAREBIT FIEND focused on the plots, seen from a decidedly adult point of view, and was devoted to adult nightmares
and phobias, making it one of the weirdest, most amazing and shocking comic strips of all times, simply “the most bizarre
newspaper feature in American history” (Jeet Heer).
This book contains
- detailed information about both the life and works of Winsor McCay, as well as the
  DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND series
- 369 reproductions of the best DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND episodes, taken from the best available
  sources, digitally restored, and reproduced to their original published size, most of them reprinted for the
  first time since their original publication a century ago
- 641 additional images (219 in color) illustrating the author's life and work, and the historical and artistic
  background to individual DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND episodes
- two articles by comic book historian Alfredo Castelli:
  Dream Travelers 1900-1947. Precursors and epigones of  Winsor McCay
  A dreamer with his feet planted firmly on the ground

- an article by dream worker Jeremy Taylor:
  Some archetypal symbolic aspects of DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND
a DVD with
- high resolution scans (8 or 3 MB each) of all 821 episodes known to exist
  (including those not reprinted in the book)
- a 600 page WORD file with a catalogue raisonné of all episodes, containing a vast array of information
  about the individual episodes, including chronological strip numbering, original publication dates, later reprints,
  whereabouts of the original artwork, inspirations used by Winsor McCay, later quotations taken from this strip,
  and historical background information, & the complete text of the printed book
- the surviving fragments from McCay's animated film Gertie on Tour (c. 1918-1921)