Long before I was a regular comic reader, I had a meager stack of comics from newsstands and spinner racks that sat on a slim bookshelf in my closet.
One was an old Conan comic from my father. Another was a random issue of Captain America.
The third was Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham (1985) #6.
Possibly my first ever comic book?
I don’t know why I had it. I think people in my family assumed I would really love Spider-Man because I shared his name, but at the time (and, to this day) I was much more interested in Wonder Woman.
That one issue (which I still have!) meant I’ve always had a soft, nostalgic spot for Peter Porker. I never expected he would appear in a comic again other than as a one-off joke about the silly excesses of the 80s… until Spider-Verse.
Spider-Verse brought almost every iteration of every spider-character ever back into play for a brief, somewhat-bloody event, which included this Spider-turned-Super-Pig from Earth-8311.
Spider-Ham survived the carnage (not THE Carnage – lower-case carnage) of the event, befriended Spider-Gwen, Spider-Gwen become a hit, and the event inspired one of the most successful and awarded animated movies of all time.
The rest is (recent) history!
This might lead you to wonder: are there many Spider-Ham comic books to read? Are they anything like the zany version of the character who was cartoony even for a cartoon in Into The Spider-Verse.
Well… that depends.
Spider-Ham made a respectable 51 appearances prior to Spider-Verse, in all of which were either explicitly a children’s comic with no bearing on modern continuity or (in the case of the 5 most-recent appearances) an obvious spoof on him being a children’s comic book character (still with no bearing on modern continue).
It’s not until Spider-Verse – and, really, after Spider-Verse – that Spider-Ham becomes the wisecracking “cartoon in the real world” version of him we saw in the film.
For better or for worse, that means your deep dive into “modern” Spider-Ham reading will actually be into a shallow pool of issues. But, if you have an unironic appreciation of seeing his cartoon silliness on display in his original cartoonish Earth, there’s more for you to read.
##
Here’s the current list of Patreon supporter exclusives!
Current Exclusives For Crushing Cadets ($1/month): 22 Guides!
DC Guides: Batman–Index of OngoingTitles, Batman:Legendsof theDarkKnight, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Omega Men
Marvel Guides: AlphaFlight, Blade, Captain Britain, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, The Eternals, Legion, MarvelEra: MarvelLegacy, Mister Sinister, Sabretooth, Spider-Ham, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey
Current Exclusives For Pledgeonauts ($1.99+/month): 47 Guides!
DC Guides: Animal Man, Aquaman, Books of Magic, Catwoman, Batman – Index of Ongoing Titles, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Flash, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Harley Quinn, Houses & Horrors, Justice League, Lucifer, Mister Miracle, Nightwing, Omega Men , Outsiders, Suicide Squad, Swamp Thing
Marvel Guides: Alpha Flight, Ant-Man & Giant-Man, Captain Britain, Champions, Darkhawk, Blade, Dazzler, Domino, Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, Falcon, Gwenpool, Legion, Marvel Era: Marvel Legacy, Moon Boy / Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan, Power Pack, Sabretooth, Sentry, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Venom, Vision, Weapon X, X-Man – Nate Grey
Indie & Licensed Comics: None right now