By Robert Mailer Anderson - Art by Jon Sack
a graphic novel
THE STORY:
Reeling from her parents tragic death, teenaged Billie is uprooted from her native Austin, Texas to live in Liberal, Kansas - which despite its name, is not politically, or socially, liberal. Her Uncle Hank and Auntie Em protest, but Billie's new guardian is her godfather Adam, “a gay, film geek stuck inside a jock’s body – a jock’s world.” With his wisecracking partner Steven, they run the Starlite movie theater, an oasis for film buffs and “the friends of Dorothy." Together, they face new challenges in their relationships and from the conservative town as they become Billie’s parents, help her “reinvest in life” as they all travel the rocky, yellow brick road of love and heartbreak.
Liberal, the adopted home of The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy, also has its share of wicked witches with unsettled scores. And a high school of students fighting 21st century culture wars. Along the way Billie meets Clara — a goth, lesbian Dorothy impersonator who’s used to being an outsider — Simon, her irrepressible and karaoke-obsessed younger brother – and Dylan, who finds himself caught between his cowardly allegiance to a rigid clique and finding the courage to act on his attraction to progressive Billie.
My Fairy Godfather tells the bittersweet tale of how film, poetry, and music connects us to who we’ve loved, who we’ve been, and who we are becoming — and that lying beneath the façade of teenage cynicism is the profound desire to be understood and loved.
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Also by Robert Mailer Anderson
"This hear-wrenching 9/11 drama draws back the curtains on American myths, revealing a global and complicated world. A resonant tale for troubling times." – Publishers Weekly
(*starred review)
"Energetic, abrasive and very funny... steamroller prose."
– New York Times
"A very sick man - and a very funny writer!" – Carl Hiaasen
Also by Jon Sack
"This hear-wrenching 9/11 drama draws back the curtains on American myths, revealing a global and complicated world. A resonant tale for troubling times." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"...the remarkably brave advocacy, protests, and investigations of ordinary citizens who turned their grief into resistance."
My Fairy Godfather Dedication
FOR
The Castro Theater
and
Mark Ganter, the original Fairy Godfather,
and
all The Friends of Dorothy
and
all my memories of banding together in the dark
with the inimitable Castro filmgoing community,
from the balcony to 6th row center,
drag queens to noir buffs,
munching popcorn for dinner and sipping Wild Turkey,
laughing, crying, clapping, hissing, cheering, shouting, singing along,
stomping the floorboards to "San Francisco" played on the Mighty Wurlitzer,
to the joy and sorrow of our cinematic history and shared humanity
including through the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic
and
aside from being the first male Noir Fest posterboy at The Castro
and
being stood up for a double-bill of Orson Welles flicks one needlessly lonely night,
(and BITCH, you know who you are!)
for once being soundly booed
by a raucous Castro packed-house audience...
yes yes yes
"There's no place like home."