 McCay began work that May on his next animated film , How a Mosquito Operates , based on a Rarebit Fiend episode from June 5 , 1909 , in which a man in bed tries in vain to defend himself from a giant mosquito , which drinks itself so full that it explodes . The animation is naturalistic — rather than expanding like a balloon , with each sip of blood the mosquito 's abdomen swells according to its body structure . The film was completed in January 1912 , and McCay toured with it that spring and summer . 
