Jim Salicrup, editor-in-chief of Papercutz and a former Marvel editor who oversaw the Spider-Man titles for years (and who hired superstar artist Todd McFarlane to illustrate Amazing Spider-Man), sat down with Dan Gvozden and I at the Connecticut ComiCONN event in Trumbull, CT, last weekend. The interview has just been released as an episode of the Superior Spider-Talk and our Amazing Friends podcast. Download on iTunes or at our Podomatic site, and be sure to rate our podcast and leave us a review. Also check for all of our podcast interviews from our day at ComiCONN, including our interviews with J.M. DeMatteis, Mark Bagley, Tom DeFalco and Danny Fingeroth.

Some highlights from our conversation with Salicrup, who was a real sport and probably could have talked with us for two hours if there was time, include:

• How he would love to have handled the reveal of the Hobgoblin as Ned Leeds in Amazing Spider-Man #289 much differently if he could do it over and how the culture of secrecy about the character led to this historic misstep.
• What he saw in artist Todd McFarlane that made him want to bring him onto Amazing Spider-Man.
• Some of the initial plans for Venom, including a female Venom.
• The pressure to produce something big and special for Amazing Spider-Man #300 and his insistence to return to the “red and blue” Spider-Man costume.
• The decision to give McFarlane his own Spider-Man title that he could write, pencil and ink.
• The decision to make all of the Spider-Man titles more consistent with each other.
• Spider-Man’s booming success in the 1990s.

Again, you can download this podcast, and all of our others from ComiCONN on iTunes, or via our Podomatic web site. Thanks again to Jim and everyone else for taking the time to chat with us at Superior Spider-Talk.