Winsor McCay was a Master Storyteller! | Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend

I am in glee when it is time for my act | Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend | Winsor McCay

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	• Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend Winsor McCay Dover Publications, 1973 - 62 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"That's what toasted cheese will do!"

Though the last century has witnessed a supernova of scientific innovation, our fizzy watery brains still haven't revealed the mysteries of sleep and dreams. Whatever underlies these prickly enigmas, many embrace dreams as something fundamental, almost primordial, to their being. Some even claim those inchoate simmering movies that invade our senses through some wispy interior camera obscura expose our desires, fears, or our "real selves." Perhaps this seemingly inexplicable nature of our private films explains why a some one hundred year old comic strip, fashioned with simple pen and ink, can enrapture gadgetized and digitized twenty-first century people. "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend," a newspaper comic strip that ran in the first decades of the twentieth century (1905 - 1911, 1913), penetrates the human psyche even today. It must have given unsuspecting nineteen-noughts incurable nightmares. Some strips may even disturb modern readers. The premise was both simple and brilliant: each strip depicts a horrid surreal nightmare that ends with the dreamer sitting up or plummetting out of bed while cursing the apparently psychotic properties of Welsh Rarebit (sometimes also called "Rabbit"). Each cursed dreamer has imbibed this cheesy concoction served over toast before retiring to bed. Not one of them questions the correlation between their gluttonous ingestion of this noxious substance and their subsequently well-deserved nightmare. Had a "National Welsh Rarebit Council" existed at the time, it would have declared outright war against this comic. History was kind, thankfully, because "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" stands as one of the medium's unquestioned masterpieces. One of the numerous brainchildren of Winsor McCay, this early strip often gets lost in the shadow of his better known masterpiece, "Little Nemo in Slumberland." "Rarebit Fiend" is often described as "Nemo for adults."

For adults it indeed is. At least, adults will likely appreciate it more than children (the platitude "comics are only for kids" is an unfortunate recent development in the US). This slim inexpensive volume reprints one of the few, if not the only, volumes printed during the strip's actual run (according to the back cover, only two or three copies of the original book exist). Following a brief introduction, including a McCay biography, the phantasmagoria begins to spew. The first strip features a poor soul being dismembered, a la Monty Python's "Black Knight," by speeding carriages. Before his wife, who is the dreamer, awakes, we see his disembodied legs, arms, torso and head floating splayed behind a rushing car. The head proclaims "Well! I believe I see my finish at last." This serves as an apt introduction to what follows. Another man gets cooked by natives (depicted in the stereotypes of the day), but they find him insufficient, humorously adding insult to injury. Another dreamer gets melted in a sticky mass (also featured on the cover). Others find themselves eaten by handbags that morph into vicious animals, getting soaked in blood, being cloned, frozen in giant icicles, headbutting locomotives, stuttering during important speeches, falling down endless steps, being buried at their own funeral, being hideously suffocated to death with chloroform, or simply going mad. One bizarre episode involves a cigar store Indian (again, remember the times) who seduces a man into kissing her. His wife sees him and sues for divorce. In the next to final panel a judge declares "I grant your wife absolute divorce and $5000.00 a minute alimony. Yes." The wooden seductress says "I love him still as much as ever." Absolutely brilliant. Other unforgettable strips involve a tailor trying to fit an amorphous and impatient customer (with "bazazza fits") and a man whose perspiration causes a flood, bringing a trolley car to a helpless halt. The scariest episode appears towards the end as an already frightening furnace transforms into a demon that pursues its owner across rooftops. He runs and screams in absolute terror before waking. Here lies the stuff of nightmares. If one could distill this strip into a catch phrase, "Psychological horrific surreal comedy" might suffice. Maybe. It defies description. Don't even try.

This small book provides the best introduction to this sadly obscure strip. Nothing like it exists, or could exist, in today's mainstream. "Rarebit Fiend" hails from the golden age of comics, where newspapers were one of the few means of mass communication. And comics helped sell newspapers (as anyone familiar with the history of "The Yellow Kid" knows). Consequently, newspapers wanted the most sensational, artistically accomplished strips possible. Today's comics, even the best ones, pale embarrassingly to the strips of this early era (at least those in newspapers; today's "Graphic Novels" often include stunning artwork). This book provides the perfect glimpse into these bygone glory days. Even some one hundred years later it can shock, intrigue and disturb. The artwork, of course, shines throughout (discounting McCay's puzzlingly sloppy word balloons and often smashed text). Readers who want more have few additional resources. Checker books have released a book of Saturday strips and anthologies of McCay's early works, including examples of "Rarebit Fiend." Also, a complete collection was printed privately in a limited run of 1,000 in 2007. Copies now fetch quite a premium (though many strips were on an included DVD). As admirable as that book is, hopefully a more widely accessible complete collection will emerge soon. In any case, given the stunning quality of this much smaller collection, "Rarebit Fiend" has the staying power of our very nightmares and dreams.

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Winsor McCay was a Master Storyteller!

This is no children's book of comics! When I showed it to my over twenty-one daughter she asked,"This used to published in a newspaper?" She loved it as much as I did. The "Far side," type humor is still funny today. Dover said they removed some of the ethic humor that would offend people today. It is sad to me that people can't laugh at themselves any more without getting offended. I would have loved to have seen all of the strips uncensored and formed my own opinion.

I am in glee when it is time for my act

I'm delighted to see that this book is available. I bought my copy of this book in the mid-70's and it is still one of the favorite books in my library. Mr. McCay is just devastatingly funny and honest about the mayhem that is turned loose in our dreams. Decapitations, public nudity, personal disasters and humilitations of all sort are rendered in the sky's-the-limit fashion that dreams take...and definitely not PC!
McCay is also a superb draftsman, although these cartoons are a pared down version of his work on the Little Nemo strips. Highly highly recommended.

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No more rarebits!

Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend presaged Little Nemo In Slumberland. This series of excellently illustrated comics anticipates the coming of Little Nemo.
These drawings were done at the early stage of Winsor McCay's career.
Winsor McCay made his first animated cartoon at age 38. At that time he was already illustrating Little Nemo In Slumberland for about 14 years.
These black and white drawings offer a glimpse into the technical drawing skill and genius of Winsor McCay striking even more considering they are set in a World where most people can't draw worth a crap.
The editorial drawings of Winsor McCay teach as much if not more than the Little Nemo cartoons. In these drawings, Winsor McCay shows deft handling of the artistic demands of drawing crowds and entire cities close up and in the distance. He is a master of perspective.
Unfortunately, most people have never heard of Winsor McCay who died in 1934. However, he counts as one of my major artistic mentors. The best I ever had, alive or dead, probably. Winsor McCay through his drawings taught me how to be a better illustrator. He would teach anyone that who looks at his drawings.

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Rarebit Fiend quite different from Little Nemo

I discovered Winsor McCay pretty recently and have been enjoying the Little Nemo full page newspaper spreads and been astonished at McCay's talent. I've seen the full sized hardcover Maresca Little Nemo 2005 publication, and two hardcover reductions: the Evergreen (Taschen) and the "Best of Little Nemo..." edited by Richard Marschall, which closely resembles the former in most cases (evidently from the same source). I read the reviews here on this book, "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend" and decided to order it. It too is amazing, but in a very different way. Whereas Little Nemo is wonderful and lavishly illustrated and colored, it doesn't make me laugh. However, just about everything in the 1905 black and white Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend (this book) makes me laugh out loud. I wasn't sure when I ordered (not having seen any of the material previously) but quickly realized it's well worth it. I can't think of a modern comics artist who makes me laugh so consistently.

This is a handsome little book and McCay's illustrations are beautifully presented. I own 4 different McCay books and have seen another and of all of them, this is the most flawless... and by far the cheapest!

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Pioneer cartoon strip, unexcelled for beauty and imagination, in 60 full sequences. Historical introduction.

reviews: page 1, 2

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