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.

In addition to writing for Geek Frontiers and Remixing History, Letizia is working on a book that ties together the fictional narratives from the Marvel Comics Universe of the 1960s and the factual events of the decade, similar to the articles that serve as the backbone of Remixing History but in a longer and more detailed format.

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.

Comics @ San Diego State University

After having amassed an impressive collection of comic books, graphic novels, and historical artifacts, SDSU is developing a groundbreaking program on comic books and social justice.

The Justice League of America Battles Pollution

In a DC comic published to coincided with the first Earth Day in April 1970, the Justice League of America encounter a burning river similar to the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland at the time.

Aurora History as Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy

The Aurora History Museum in Colorado teamed up with Pop Culture Classroom to create a Dungeons & Dragons adventure that blended factual history with the fantasy of the game.

Green Arrow: The Native American Movement

Green Arrow and his superhero counterpart Green Lantern assist a tribe of Native Americans involved in a lumber dispute in the Pacific Northwest that mirrored actual events in the region.

Charlie Brown and His Times

In his book Charlie Brown’s America, Blake Scott Ball shows how Charles Schultz’s iconic comic strip was not only part of American culture but representative of its times as well.

Popular Culture Association

During the 1960s, Professor Ray Browne and a few of his colleagues embarked on a campaign to bring popular culture into academia, forever changing the educational landscape as a result.

Iron Man: Behind Enemy Lines

Iron Man and New York Times journalist Harrison Salisbury both traveled to North Vietnam in the late 1960s, encountering different views of the U.S. bombing effort during the Vietnam War.

The Transformation of a Kennedy and a Queen

In 1969, the DC Comics superhero Green Arrow began his transformation from Batman rip-off to social justice advocate, a conversion that mirrored that of the real world’s Robert F. Kennedy.

Green Arrow: The Hunt for African Poachers

In a 1990 comic book by writer Mike Grell, Oliver Queen joins a group of mercenaries to track down poachers in Africa, similar to the clandestine Operation Lock from the same time period.

A Green Arrow History of Seattle

In the DC Rebirth comic book series by writer Benjamin Percy, the bow-and-arrow wielding superhero resides in a Seattle whose history is both different and similar to the actual Seattle.

Green Arrow: The Dakota Access Pipeline

The Green Arrow: Rebirth comic book series included a two-issue story arc based on real world protests at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation against the construction of an oil pipeline.

Nomad: The 1992 Los Angeles Riots

Marvel superhero Jack Monroe traveled across the country as Nomad in the early 1990s and found himself in Los Angeles on the night that real-world riots erupted in the City of Angels.

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