By James H. Burns: As the Saturday Night Live celebration continues (odd, since the actual anniversary isn’t until the Autumn!)…

At the height of the series’ late 1970s popularity, John Belushi, with some regularity, would walk into Bill Morse’s Village Comics Art Shop on 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village (next to the Waverly movie theatre). This was back when the store was still being managed by Dave Miley (who had, in fact, managed one of the very first comics shops in America!)

The glass door would open, and what was John looking for?

“Hey, man did the new Conans come in yet?”

I suppose it’s only apropos to mention that just a relatively short while later, when W.D. Richter was writing a screenplay adaptation of Alley Oop, V.T. Hamlin’s great fantasy comic strip, everyone involved with the proposed film was hoping to get Belushi to star…