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.

 

Justice for Daenerys

The final season of Game of Thrones saw heroine Daenerys Targaryen turn villain, and fans expressed both frustration through a petition and gratitude to the cast via a charity fundraiser.

Hunger Is Not a Game

Fans of The Hunger Games launched various social activism campaigns that coincided with the release of each new film in the series and centered on both hunger and economic inequality.

Jurassic Quest: An Ongoing Journey

The travelling entertainment exhibit features animatronic dinosaurs that mimic various extinct species and adds to the human race’s fascination, as well as quest, for all things dinosaur.

The Walking Dead: The Princess of Pittsburgh

During the summer of 2017, characters from The Walking Dead comic book visited Pittsburgh in a pair of issues that serve as a homage to director George Romero, who had died a month earlier.

Museum of Pop Culture

The Seattle museum was established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen as the Jimi Hendrix-themed Experience Music Project but later expanded its focus to include sci-fi and fantasy.

Quidditch: A Muggle Sport

In 2005, students at Middlebury College in Vermont transformed the Quidditch of Harry Potter into a real world pastime that later became the fastest growing collegiate sport in America.

#ReleaseTheSnyderCut

Fans advocating the release of Zack Snyder’s version of the 2017 Justice League film have not only gained publicity but raised funds in support of a suicide prevention charity as well.

Protego Foundation

The non-profit animal rights organization uses the books and films of Harry Potter to engage fans of the series and create campaigns designed to protect animals within the real world.

Museum of Science

The Boston-based Museum of Science was a mere natural history museum in the 1800s before developing an education focus that now embraces all sciences, from astronomy to zoology.

Field Museum

The Field Museum in Chicago, one of the premier natural history museums in the United States, is home to Sue the T. Rex, the largest and most complete specimen of its species ever discovered.

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition

Seattle sponsored the first world’s fair held in the state of Washington in 1909, an event that showcased the city as the gateway to the north following the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897.

Kenneth Arnold and the First Flying Saucer

Kenneth Arnold reported the first documented UFO sighting on June 24, 1947, while traveling past Mount Rainier near Seattle, giving rise to the phrase “flying saucers” in the process.