Sorry to have to report the passing of author-historian Allan Asherman. He was 76 and the cause of death is being reported as related to a recent fall. Allan was a very smart guy — a respected author among comic book fans, film buffs and lovers of Star Trek. Among his many books were The Star Trek Compendium, The Star Trek Interview Book and The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But Allan was an expert on all sorts of things.
I knew him when he worked for DC Comics, sometimes as an editor and sometimes as their in-house librarian. He started there almost five decades ago as one of the "Junior Woodchucks," which was kind of an intern/assistant program. Paul Levitz, who was also part of that group, wrote on Facebook and will not mind me stealing his words and posting them here…
Allan was a good soul, a historian of much of what had gone on in comics and science fiction, a teacher, a writer, and a part of DC for many years in many guises. His first tour of duty was an assistant editor, working with Joe Kubert, Bob Kanigher and Joe Simon, and that was his role in Woodchuck days, cut short in one of the mid-70s layoffs that swept through. He returned again and again (I lost track along the way, but I think he may have been the "most hired" person at DC), including tours in the department that stored our film negatives for reprinting and international use, and a very long and vital tour as the company librarian, ending only when the company moved to Burbank. In all of these roles, he was one of the people who would be turned to with an "Allan might know…" question and often he did.
Allan did so many things that it's hard to list them all. He wrote articles and books, mostly about his favorite movies and TV shows, he helped program film festivals, he contributed supplementary material to DVDs and Blu-rays, he was just one of those walking encyclopedias. We often consulted each other about comic book history and he was a fine gentleman. Our sympathies go out to his friends and especially his wife Arlene Lo, who was a proofreader at DC Comics.