Whatever became of Alan Light? 2 2

[Mmehdy]

On October 3, 2017 at 4:43 PM, Senormac said:

I think he really HAS gone on to better things and is probably making a lot more $$$ too. Unless he had a collection of books somewhere he probably does not have too much interest in the past.  Oh sure.... we would all love it, but I guess it's unlikely

still it is or was a big part of his life...we will never know I guess

[Alan L Light]

Hi, Alan here.  I'm two years late to this whatever happened to me discussion, but I am alive and well (as of October 6, 2019, knock wood) and appreciate the nice comments folks have made about me, TBG and the long ago days.  It's not that I've been trying to hide, I've just time has moved on and don't think about those days much anymore.   I didn't think I was that difficult to find.  I'm on facebook and I have had a flickr PRO account with tens of thousands of photos since 2006.

  https://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/albums

To clear up a couple of things, I never worked in Hollywood.  I photographed a thousand or so celebrities out there courtesy of friends who worked on the awards shows.  They got me tickets and/or backstage passes to the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, movie premieres and such.  I was just a guy in a rented tux with a pocket camera, i.e. backstage during the telecast at the 1989 Oscars, standing on the side of the stage 20 feet from Dustin Hoffman as he gave his acceptance speech for winning Best Actor for Rain Man, and I was the first to congratulate him when he finished and walked past me.  Wikipedia uses a lot of my celebrity photos because I share them freely, and without charge. 

It's been decades since I read that interview with me.  I had totally forgotten about it.  Today it made me cringe, or at least what little I could stand to read did.  Why on Earth did I think readers back t hen would be interested?  

I sold TBG in 1982 to Krause Publications and "retired."   Today, at 66, I'm also retired!   In between will remain a mystery, except for the celebrity photography I did as a hobby between 1987 and 1997. 

Thanks everyone.   PS Here's a recent photo of me.

Alan

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Alan L Light
add photo

[ThreeSeas]

Thanks for the update, and you most certainly look younger than 66.

[Robot Man]

Thanks for the post Alan! Good to see you are looking good and doing well. 

TGB was a HUGE part of my early years as a collector. It brought together so many of us that we would never have known about otherwise. 

I remember coming home at night to the latest issue, pouring over the ads, making calls and adding so many wonderful books to my collection. The articles also educated me to the history of comics. TGB ranks right up there with the most important achievements in fandom. Thanks so much for all your hard work on it!

Got any cool stories about the “old days” of fandom? 

[comicjack]

Comics keep you young and thanks for catch up post 

[Senormac]

  What a treat !!  Thx for posting Alan !!  You look great !! 

[500Club]

66? 

You could pass for 46.

Thanks for the update.  Good to hear you’re well. 

[Duffman_Comics]

This is the sort of thing that makes me really happy these Boards exist.

Some more light shone on the early days of fandom - and then the principal arrives to comment

66? I am three years younger and at times think I look like I've been dragged backwards through three hedges.

I was a subscriber "way back when" but given the cost to airmail them here was prohibitive, I opted for surface (yes, it existed back then).

A typically stupid Duffman decision to procure a time sensitive newsletter via the slowest way possible.

Still, I may have missed out on a lot of comics, but I sure devoured the articles.

Kudos Alan, thanks for the memories.