Rarebit Fiend set up a formula which McCay was to use in the better-known Little Nemo.
 A large number of the Nemo strips used ideas recycled from Rarebit Fiend, such as the October 31, 1907, "walking bed" episode, which was used in the July 26, 1908, episode of Little Nemo.

Comics scholar Jeet Heer called Rarebit Fiend "perhaps the most bizarre newspaper feature in American history".
 Merkl notes examples of the strip presaging ideas and scenes in later media: the strip includes scenes in which a man kicks a dog, slaps a woman, beats a blind man, and throws another woman out a window, as in Luis Buñuel's film L'Age d'Or (1930); and giant characters let loose in the big city, climbing and damaging buildings and subway trains, as in King Kong (1933).
 Merkl compares the strip for March 9, 1907, in which a child's bedroom becomes a lion-infested jungle, to the 1950 Ray Bradbury story "The Veldt", and the strip from September 26, 1908, depicting a stretchable face, to Salvador Dalí's surrealist painting Soft self-portrait with fried bacon (1941) and the cosmetic surgeries in Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
 Stephen R. Bissette compares a strip featuring elevators flying from buildings and other scenes to the 2005 Tim Burton take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The strip was most likely an influence on episodes of Frank King's early comic strip Bobby Make-Believe.
 Many scholars believe that Carl Barks, a professed fan of Little Nemo, was likely exposed to Rarebit Fiend, which appeared in The San Francisco Examiner, which Barks read growing up.
 Several episodes of Barks's Donald Duck strips appear to have taken their subjects from Rarebit Fiend.
 Many scenes from animated films by Tex Avery from between 1943 and 1954 are said to show clearly a Rarebit Fiend influence.
 Science fiction illustrator Frank R. Paul painted a number of pulp magazine covers influenced by Rarebit Fiend.

Art Spiegelman paid parodic homage to Rarebit Fiend in his 1974 strip "Real Dream".
 In 1991, Rick Veitch began producing short comics based on his dreams.
 Beginning in 1994, he put out twenty-one issues of Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends from his own King Hell Press.
John Ashbery published a poem titled "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend."
Rarebit Fiend set up a formula which McCay was to use in the better-known Little Nemo.  A large number of the Nemo strips used ideas recycled from Rarebit Fiend, such as the October 31, 1907, "walking bed" episode, which was used in the July 26, 1908, episode of Little Nemo.
Comics scholar Jeet Heer called Rarebit Fiend "perhaps the most bizarre newspaper feature in American history".  Merkl notes examples of the strip presaging ideas and scenes in later media: the strip includes scenes in which a man kicks a dog, slaps a woman, beats a blind man, and throws another woman out a window, as in Luis Buñuel's film L'Age d'Or (1930); and giant characters let loose in the big city, climbing and damaging buildings and subway trains, as in King Kong (1933).  Merkl compares the strip for March 9, 1907, in which a child's bedroom becomes a lion-infested jungle, to the 1950 Ray Bradbury story "The Veldt", and the strip from September 26, 1908, depicting a stretchable face, to Salvador Dalí's surrealist painting Soft self-portrait with fried bacon (1941) and the cosmetic surgeries in Terry Gilliam's Brazil.  Stephen R. Bissette compares a strip featuring elevators flying from buildings and other scenes to the 2005 Tim Burton take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The strip was most likely an influence on episodes of Frank King's early comic strip Bobby Make-Believe.  Many scholars believe that Carl Barks, a professed fan of Little Nemo, was likely exposed to Rarebit Fiend, which appeared in The San Francisco Examiner, which Barks read growing up.  Several episodes of Barks's Donald Duck strips appear to have taken their subjects from Rarebit Fiend.  Many scenes from animated films by Tex Avery from between 1943 and 1954 are said to show clearly a Rarebit Fiend influence.  Science fiction illustrator Frank R. Paul painted a number of pulp magazine covers influenced by Rarebit Fiend.
Art Spiegelman paid parodic homage to Rarebit Fiend in his 1974 strip "Real Dream".  In 1991, Rick Veitch began producing short comics based on his dreams.  Beginning in 1994, he put out twenty-one issues of Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends from his own King Hell Press. John Ashbery published a poem titled "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend."
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend