Anthony Letizia

Anthony Letizia has been many things through the years, including an accountant, journalist, and playwright. From June 2014 to May 2019, he served on the board – as well as treasurer – of the ToonSeum, a nonprofit museum of the cartoon and comic arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While there, Letizia curated two exhibits, “To Boldly Go: The Graphic Art of Star Trek” (October 2016 to January 2017) and “Popology: An Exhibit of Pop Culture and Comics” (September 2017 to November 2017), as well as co-curated “Wonder Woman: Visions” (November 2017 to February 2018).

After a decades-long hiatus, Anthony Letizia completed his M.A. in History at Duquesne University in December 2024. He has used his history background to make a number of presentations in recent years on the ways that popular culture intersects with the real world. The list includes: “Superheroes Battle Pollution on the First Earth Day” poster presentation as part of the Comics Arts Conference at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024; “DC Comics and August 1986” at the Popular Culture Association Conference in Chicago in March 2024; and “Green Arrow as Social Justice Warrior” as part of the Comics Arts Conference at WonderCon in Anaheim in March 2023. He also organized/moderated a panel at the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle in August 2022 entitled “A Green Arrow History of Seattle” and made a brief “Marvel Comics History of the 1960s” presentation at the virtual Popular Culture Association conference in April 2022.

Although still an accountant by day, at night Anthony Letizia is a strong proponent and true believer in the power of Geek Culture. He can be reached at anthony@geekfrontiers.com.

 

Bill Speidel and the Seattle Underground

After an 1889 fire leveled twenty-five blocks of Seattle, the city decided to elevate the streets and sidewalks, creating an underground that became a popular tourist attraction during the 1960s.

Iron Man: The Return of Fin Fang Foom

The extraterrestrial dragon known as Fin Fang Foom makes a second visit to Seattle only to again thwarted by Iron Man in a special comic only available on military bases around the world.

Viking: Warriors of the North Sea

The traveling exhibit from the National Museum of Denmark transports visitors to the Viking Age and the seafaring culture of fierce warriors who inevitably left their mark on the times.

Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes

The S’Klallam Tribe artist has found success as a comic book illustrator, and even has a large mural featuring Marvel superheroes on display at the Native American Museum in New York.

Black Canary: Garlic Gulch

Dinah Lance and her superhero persona Black Canary assist a resident of the Garlic Gulch neighborhood of Seattle threatened by a real estate developer looking to build luxury apartments.

Fandom Acts of Kindness

In their 2023 book Fandom Acts of Kindness, Tanya Cook and Kaela Joseph explore the growing realm of fan activism, in which fictional fandoms are used to do good in the real world.

Proctor Valley Road

The dirt thoroughfare near San Diego is host to a plethora of urban legends, from ghosts to monsters to demon cars, and plays a central role in the 2021 Grant Morrison graphic novel.

Avatar Activism

The 2009 film Avatar inspired indigenous activists upon its initial release, while likewise resonating with environmentalists who saw similarities between the fictional Pandora and Earth.

The Handmaid Protests

Woman rights advocates began attending protests dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale after the release of the Hulu series adaptation in 2017.

Grover Krantz: In Search of Bigfoot

The Washington State University anthropologist was a firm believer in Bigfoot and devoted his life to scientifically proving the creature’s existence despite derision from his fellow academics.

It Happened at the World’s Fair

Elvis Presley visited the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair for ten days in September to film his twelfth Hollywood musical, and local teenage fans screamed and swooned the entire time he was there.

Suciasaurus Rex: Washington’s First Dinosaur

In May 2012, two paleontologists from the Burke Museum in Seattle uncovered a partial dinosaur fossil in the state of Washington despite the region being underwater millions of years ago.