Editing Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (section)

===Influences===
[[File:John Tenniel - Alice in Wonderland - Pool of Tears.jpg|right|thumb|alt=Drawing of Alice floating in a pool of tears|''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' was a likely influence which anticipated ideas in McCay's strips.]]

Scholars such as Claude Moliterni,{{sfn|Dover Publications|1973|p=xii}} Ulrich Merkl, Alfredo Castelli, and others have located possible influences. These include [[Edward Lear]]'s popular ''The Book of Nonsense'' (1870),{{sfn|Bissette|2007}} [[Gelett Burgess]]' ''The Burgess Nonsense Book'' (1901), [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1865) (particularly the pool of tears scene, which seems related to the flood of sweat in one early ''Rarebit Fiend'' strip{{sfnm|1a1=Dover Publications|1y=1973|1p=xii|2a1=Canemaker|2y=2005|2p=82}}), and a variety of dream cartoons and illustrations that appeared in various periodicals McCay was likely familiar with.{{sfn|Dover Publications|1973|p=xii}}

The most probable influence on the strip was ''Welsh Rarebit Tales'' (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins. Cummins stated that he drew inspiration for this collection of fifteen science fiction stories from nightmares brought on by eating Welsh rarebit and lobster. Several of McCay's post-''Herald'' strips from 1911 and 1912 were even titled ''Dream of a Lobster Fiend''.{{sfnm|1a1=Merkl|1y=2007b|1p=487|2a1=Bukatman|2y=2012|2p=50}}

Other influences have been established: [[H.&nbsp;G. Wells]], [[L.&nbsp;Frank Baum]]'s ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' (1900), [[J.&nbsp;M. Barrie]]'s ''[[Peter and Wendy]]'' (1904), [[Carlo Collodi]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio]]'' (1883), [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] story "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" (1889), [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]]'s ''[[Quo Vadis (novel)|Quo Vadis]]'' (1896), [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde|Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'' (1886), and [[Mark Twain]]'s "The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note" (1893).{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|pp=498–499}}

McCay never acknowledged the influence of Sigmund Freud, whose ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' had been published in 1900. McCay scholar Ulrich Merkl says it was likely McCay was aware of the Viennese doctor's theories, as they had been widely reported and talked about in the New York newspaper world of which was McCay was a part.{{sfn|Taylor|2007|pp=552–553}}