 McCay 's work has inspired cartoonists from Carl Barks to Art Spiegelman . Robert Crumb called McCay a " genius " and one of his favorite cartoonists . Art Spiegelman 's 1974 " Real Dream " strip was partially inspired by Rarebit Fiend , and his In the Shadow of No Towers in 2004 appropriated some of McCay 's imagery , and included a page of Little Nemo in its appendix . Maurice Sendak 's children 's book In the Night Kitchen ( 1970 ) was an homage to McCay 's work , as was Rick Veitch ' comic book series Roarin ' Rick 's Rarebit Fiends ( 1994 – 96 ) . Kim Deitch and Simon Deitch 's graphic novel The Boulevard of Broken Dreams revolved around a character named Winsor Newton , based on an aged McCay . Cartoonist Berke Breathed lamented that the conditions of newspaper cartooning had devolved to such a degree since McCay 's time that , had he worked later in the century , he would not have been allotted space sufficient for his expansive full @-@ page fantasies . 
