This episode opens with our remembrance of artist Sal Buscema, who passed away on January 24, 2026.

Then, enjoy a double-sized episode featuring an interview with Ron Frenz and Tom DeFalco about their history with the Venom character and the recent backup story they did for Venom #252, an “anniversary” celebration of Amazing Spider-Man #252, which kicked off their run and introduced the world to the black-suited Spider-Man.

Then, Dan sits down with Professor Charlie Michael from Emory University’s Film and Media Department. He’s just released the paperback version of his book Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Youth, Race and the Hypertext, which is an incredible dissection of the film that we are eager to share with our audience. We’ll be doing a follow-up interview with Charlie about the book, but we wanted to give you a chance to read it along with us. You can order a copy of the book here:

https://www.routledge.com/Spider-Man-Into-the-Spider-Verse-Youth-Race-and-the-Hypertext/Michael/p/book/9780367764524

Rick Coste edited this episode. Alex Galucki edited the video version of this podcast. Our artwork is handcrafted by artists Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema, and Nick Cagnetti. Our theme songs were produced by Ryland Bojack, Tony Thaxton, and Spider-Maj. Our animated introduction to the show is by Josh Sutton of Panels to Pixels.

Watch the show on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOPCnjzQZNViyEnoOuckaVQ

We would also love to see you join our Amazing Spider-Slack community board. If you’d like to join in on our amazing conversations, click this link to get started:
https://join.slack.com/t/amazingspider/shared_invite/zt-42tsfhs2-yBaH6KkRmOWiW_8gCf9SmQ

This week’s Patreon podcasts include a review of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 7) #21, our interview with Ron Frenz and Tom DeFalco about Venom #252, and two episodes of the Whatever a Spider Can Diaries, which documents Dan’s process of writing a book about Spider-Man. If you’d like to follow along with our reviews as they are released, please check out our Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/superiorspidertalk

Read our B-Title reviews, collecting memories, and more in the Amazing Spider-Talk Substack!
http://www.amazingspider.substack.com

You can email questions to our show at amazingspidertalk@gmail.com or by clicking here.

You can also BUY MARK’S BOOK, 100 Things Spider-Man Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.

The post Our Amazing Friends: Black Suit Debut Creators (Ron Frenz & Tom DeFalco) Discuss Venom #252 appeared first on Amazing Spider-Talk.