Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things by Ted Naifeh

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things by Ted Naifeh
Published by Oni Press

Momence Junior High had two places for students to wait before school began. You could wait in the gym or in the library. The gym was divided with fifth and sixth graders on one side and seventh and eight graders on the other. The library was for if you had homework to do. I don't know why, but I found the gym overwhelming. It was fine at first, but as school progressed the mass of people and noise began to unnerve me. My heart would race and I'd become uncertain. My anxiety grew as my social difficulties grew with my peers. Like many a nerd before me I retreated to the library.
The library turned out to be pretty cool. Since I was in their everyday, I grew to know the librarian. Mrs. White was the nicest person I ever encountered during my years of education. She treated me with a kindness that still softens my heart. I even got a job in the library. Simple stuff really. Deliver film projectors and televisions from the store room to the proper classroom. I loved that job. Felt like I could do something right.
-Jason Arcand
www.littleenandbigen.com

C'mon and bring the Illinoise by Stufjan Stevens

C'mon and bring the Illinoise by Stufjan Stevens
Growing up I clung to an idea. "Since I was not born in my hometown, I am not limited by it." It seems silly now, but it was very important to me at the time. Momence was not an inspiring place growing up. One of my elementary field trips was to the hog processing plant. Yes...a hog plant. I felt out of place. The down slump the town was going through seemed to drag everyone with it. The town was dying, or so it seemed to my over dramatic youthful self.
Older and wiser, I now see being born in Kankakee county does not curse one to be small town. My mantra was a way of dealing with the pain from an awkward adolescence. I was teased by my class mates. I did not fit in. It hurt. Hurt a lot. Focusing on my outsider birth place allowed me to deal with being an outsider at my school.
-Jason Arcand
www.littleenandbigen.com

Meet The Robinsons

Meet The Robinsons
Watched at the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville, IL on 4-14-07

A story is like a landscape. We wind our way through peaks and valleys and stop in the locales along the way. We try to enjoy the trip for its own sake but we don't. Unconsciously the viewer compares and contrasts where he or she is with where they have been.
-Jason Arcand
www.littleenandbigen.com

Redline

Redline
Watched at the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville, IL on 4-14-07

Surprise is no longer a friend. Hasn't written me in a long while.

Beware the advertising. It cares not that someone comes to see the movie. It cares only that it is aired. It only cares that it is talked about. Spawning and spawning inside you till it overflows the tidal pool of your mind. Out it spills in words said to another. Talk about me, it says. Listen to me, it says. Fuck the movie, it says. I'll tell you every secret of the movie. Who, what, when, where, why, and how.
-Jason Arcand
www.littleenandbigen.com