Commentaire
I am very pleased to add this 110 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 I have been fortunate to own a nice McCay unpublished piece for a number of years but always wanted to add a Sammy Sneeze of Rarebit Fiend to my collection. That goal came to fruition just 2 months ago with my first Rarebit fiend arriving in June. Then I bought another and then this one so three in about a 2 month span. Perhaps I am Rarebit Fiend fiend and perhaps like the characters in the narratives, it is time for me to swear off any more Rarebits...well maybe just for a while. I am expecting the second of the three to arrive tomorrow (this is the third). This one 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 art is mounted on a larger, archival board. 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 themes in this one. How you see this as the futility of a race with one's self or the worry that someone will get ahead of you in life...certainly a good one to ponder over. The sequential additions from panel to panel foreshadow McCays pioneering animation with Gertie in 1914.
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.