Editing Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (section)

==Publishing history==
[[Image:Dream of the Rarebit Fiend 1905-01-07detail.jpg|thumb|350px|alt=Rarebit fiend comic strip of giant man romping through New York City|A giant man romps through New York City (7 January 1905).]]

''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' was McCay's longest running comic strip. He made over 300 more ''Rarebit Fiend'' episodes than he made of the more famous ''Little Nemo''.{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=488}} The first strip appeared on September 10, 1904, in the ''New York Herald'', a few months after the first appearance of McCay's ''Little Sammy Sneeze''.{{sfn|Harvey|1994|pp=27–28}} It was McCay's second successful newspaper strip, after ''Sammy Sneeze'' landed him a position on the cartooning staff of the ''Herald''. ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' ran in the ''Evening Telegram'', which was published by the ''Herald'' at the time.{{sfn|Dover Publications|1973|p=vii}}

The strip appeared two to three times a week. It typically filled a quarter of a newspaper page on weekdays, and half a page on Saturdays.{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=488}} The strip normally appeared in black-and-white, but 29 of the strips appeared in color{{sfn|van Opstal|2008}} throughout 1913, run weekly in the ''Herald''. These were strips drawn between 1908 and 1911 which the ''Evening Telegram'' had neglected to print.{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=488}} McCay sometimes encouraged readers to submit dream ideas, to be sent care of the ''Herald'' to "Silas the Dreamer".{{sfn|Canemaker|2005|p=83}} McCay acknowledged the submissions he accepted with a "thanks to&nbsp;..." on the strip beside his own signature. Among those credited were science fiction pioneer [[Hugo Gernsback]].{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=498}}

''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'' initial run continued until 1911. It appeared again in various papers between 1911 and 1913 under other titles,{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=478}} such as ''Midsummer Day Dreams'' and ''It Was Only a Dream''.{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|pp=488–489}} From 1923 to 1925{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=485}} McCay revived the strip under the title ''Rarebit Reveries''. Though signed "Robert Winsor McCay Jr." (McCay's son), the strips appear to be in McCay's own hand, with the possible exception of the lettering. McCay had also signed some of his animation and editorial cartoons with his son's name. As of 2007 only seven examples of ''Rarebit Reveries'' were known, though it is nearly certain others were printed.{{sfn|Merkl|2007b|p=466}}

===Collections===
[[File:Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend (Stokes 1905) cover.jpg|thumb|alt=A monochromatic book cover. At the top in large bold letters reads "Dreams of the", followed by an illustration of a man covered in cheese, followed by "Rarebit Fiend" in bold. Below reads, "New York:  Frederick A. Stokes Company: Publishers"|Cover of the first collection, ''Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend'' (1905)]]

The earliest collection, titled ''Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend'', appeared in 1905 from [[Frederick&nbsp;A. Stokes]] and reprinted 61 of the strips. [[Dover Publications]] reprinted this collection in 1973 in a 10% enlarged edition with new introductory material. The Dover edition dropped the final strip from the original collection as it contained [[Ethnic joke|ethnic humor]] that the publisher believed would not be to the taste of a 1970s audience.{{sfn|Dover Publications|1973|p=xiii}}

''Rarebit Fiend'' examples appear in ''Daydreams and Nightmares'' ([[Fantagraphics Books|Fantagraphics]], 1988/2006; editor [[Rick Marschall|Richard Marschall]]), a collection of miscellaneous work by McCay.{{sfnm|1a1=Heer|1y=2006|2a1=Raiteri|2y=2006}} Checker Books reprinted many of the ''Rarebit Fiend'' strips over eight volumes of the series ''Winsor McCay: Early Works''{{sfn|Bissette|2007}} and in 2006 reprinted 183 of the color Saturday strips in ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend: The Saturdays''.{{sfnm|1a1=Brady|1y=2008|2a1=Merkl|2y=2007b|2p=583}} The Checker books reprinted all but about 300 of the known ''Rarebit Fiend'' strips.{{sfn|Bissette|2007}}

In July 2007, German art historian Ulrich Merkl self-published a {{convert|43.5|×|31|cm|in|0|abbr=on|disp=flip}}, 464-page volume called ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'', reproducing 369 of the strips in full size.{{sfn|Bissette|2007}} Previous reprintings of the strip reduced the strips to about a third of their originally published size, resulting in loss of detail and making the lettering hard to read. The size of the book made automatic [[Bookbinding|binding]] impossible, so it had to be bound by hand. The book was limited to 1000 copies, and a DVD was included with [[Image scanner|scans]] of the 821 known installments of the strip,{{sfn|Heller|2007}} the complete text of the book,{{sfn|van Opstal|2008}} a ''[[catalogue raisonné]]'' of the strips,{{sfn|Stofka|2008}} and a video of an example of McCay's animation.{{sfnm|1a1=van Opstal|1y=2008|2a1=Stofka|2y=2008}} The sources of the strips were from Merkl's personal collection, the [[Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum|Cartoon Research Library]] of the [[Ohio State University]],{{sfn|Heller|2007}} and [[Microform|microfilms]] purchased from the [[New York Public Library]] containing the complete ''New York Evening Journal'' run of the strip.{{sfn|Bissette|2007}} Merkl has said that, on average, six hours were required per strip for scanning and [[Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage|restoration]].{{sfn|Heller|2007}} The book also featured two essays by Italian comics editor Alfredo Castelli{{sfnm|1a1=Bissette|1y=2007|2a1=Stofka|2y=2008}} and one by [[Jeremy Taylor (dream worker)|Jeremy Taylor]],{{sfn|Stofka|2008}} former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.{{sfn|van Opstal|2008}}