Scholars such as Claude Moliterni, Ulrich Merkl, Alfredo Castelli, and others have hunted down what they believe to have influenced McCay's work on Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.
 Among the possible influences are Edward Lear's popular The Book of Nonsense (1870), 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), and a variety of dream cartoons and illustrations that appeared in various periodicals McCay was likely familiar with.

The most probable immediate influence on the strip was Welsh Rarebit Tales (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins.
 Cummins stated he drew inspiration for this collection of 15 science fiction stories from nightmares brought on by eating Welsh rarebit and lobster—making further likely the influence, as several post-Herald strips from 1911 and 1912 were titled Dream of a Lobster Fiend.

Other influences that have been established include H. G. Wells, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1904), Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (1883), Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and the Engineer's Thumb (1889), Henryk Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis (1896), Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Mark Twain's The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note (1893).

McCay never acknowledged the influence of Sigmund Freud, whose The Interpretation of Dreams had been published in 1900.
 According to McCay scholar Ulrich Merkl, it is 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 McCay was a part of.
Scholars such as Claude Moliterni, Ulrich Merkl, Alfredo Castelli, and others have hunted down what they believe to have influenced McCay's work on Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.  Among the possible influences are Edward Lear's popular The Book of Nonsense (1870), 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), and a variety of dream cartoons and illustrations that appeared in various periodicals McCay was likely familiar with.
The most probable immediate influence on the strip was Welsh Rarebit Tales (1902) by Harle Oren Cummins.  Cummins stated he drew inspiration for this collection of 15 science fiction stories from nightmares brought on by eating Welsh rarebit and lobster—making further likely the influence, as several post-Herald strips from 1911 and 1912 were titled Dream of a Lobster Fiend.
Other influences that have been established include H. G. Wells, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1904), Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (1883), Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and the Engineer's Thumb (1889), Henryk Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis (1896), Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Mark Twain's The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note (1893).
McCay never acknowledged the influence of Sigmund Freud, whose The Interpretation of Dreams had been published in 1900.  According to McCay scholar Ulrich Merkl, it is 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 McCay was a part of.
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend