Broken Frontier

Checker Publishing continues to spotlight one of the greatest comic strip creators of all time in this collected edition focusing on Winsor McCay’s Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.

In many ways, the medium of modern comics owes much of its legacy to one of the founding fathers of comic strips and political illustrations. His name is Winsor McCay, a man solely responsible for creating Little Nemo in Slumberland. Of course he’s also responsible for etching out dubious moments in the life of the Dreaming Rarebit Fiend, and this volume called The Saturdays devotes over 180 pages of McCay’s unconventional themes and political satire to the genesis of the strip.

Now for the uninitiated unfamiliar with McCay’s work, the concept behind the Rarebit Fiend begins with some poor sap devouring a Welsh rarebit (commonly known as a cheese pie) and then falling into a deep sleep whereby strange drug-induced like encounters baffle the mind of the sleeper. In many cases, the dreams in each strip are structured like one long hallucinogenic joke structured to prey upon the vulnerability of the individual, and most often the imagery incorporated by McCay is mind jolting. In one strip that I found rather stimulating, a man ice skates on the New York Harbor and is startled to see the statue of Lady Liberty get off her pedestal and join him for a skate. The surprise though is that she ultimately falls through the ice, prompting me to wonder how truly prophetic Winsor McCay was as an artist and political satirist.

He was obviously a man ahead of his time in many aspects right down to the visual splendor of designing each strip. Now some will say his work is gimmicky at times, but you can’t deny the synergy emanating in each panel, allowing McCay’s penchant for cleverness to show through. There were other good strips like the man who is essentially a self aware drawing taunting the artist to finish him off, only to watch copious amounts of inks splotches drip continuously into each panel. By the time you get to the last panel the man is drowned out completely by the ink splotches, thus proving how maniacal McCay could be as an artist.

This collected edition of Winsor McCay’s Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was orchestrated by the fine folks at Checker Book Publishing. The publishing company specializes in trades mostly and they should be commended for reprinting much of McCay’s output during the years of 1904-1911 in which the artist’s work appeared in the New York Evening Telegram. Special editions like this one here are a real treat for anyone interested in discovering a true industry giant like McCay, and I am totally recommending this to enthusiasts of comic strips just for the visual concepts alone. Winsor McCay is truly an artist of pure genius and he deserves to have his work in a collection as good as this one is.