The Century-Old Comic Strip Devoted to Cheese-Fueled Nightmares

The relationship between greasy midnight snacks and unusual dreams began logically enough–when Americans started staying up into the pre-dawn hours rather than turning in as the sun went down. Thanks to widespread artificial lighting, people in the 1890s could cavort until late, and they soon embraced a form of cheap drunken sustenance known as “Welsh rarebit”–essentially melted cheese on toast moistened with beer.

Winsor McCay, one of America’s most popular comics artists at the turn of the 20th century, was the self-appointed chronicler of this phenomenon. His daily strip, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, did more than document, however.  Atlas Obscura has more on the comic and the snack.