{"id":3879,"date":"2026-05-08T20:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3879"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:57:52","slug":"the-night-they-burned-superman-in-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3879","title":{"rendered":"The Night They Burned Superman in West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1948, a small town in West Virginia became the center of a growing national fear over the perceived evil influence of comic books. \u00a0There, in the town of Spencer, a schoolteacher and her students gathered thousands of comic books and set them ablaze in a bonfire, starting with one featuring the Man of Steel, Superman.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What led to this dramatic moment? In this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of the time a national panic reached into the heart of Appalachia, another one of the Stories of Appalachia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoy stories like this, be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast so you never miss an episode. You\u2019ll find us wherever you get your favorite podcasts.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_4569\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3879-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71911833\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71911833\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71911833\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71911833\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3879-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71911833\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1948, a small town in West Virginia became the center of a growing national fear over the perceived evil influence of comic books. \u00a0There, in the town of Spencer, a schoolteacher and her students gathered thousands of comic books and set them ablaze in a bonfire, starting with one featuring the Man of Steel, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[96,7,33],"tags":[1687,1262,1513,1692,1686,1690,1694,1691,1689,1688,1695,1693,778],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-oddities","category-the-1940s","tag-1948-spencer-west-virginia","tag-american-history-podcast","tag-appalachia-history","tag-book-burning-america","tag-comic-book-burning","tag-comic-book-controversy","tag-comic-book-history","tag-comics-code-authority","tag-david-mace","tag-mabel-riddel","tag-moral-panic-1940s","tag-post-wwii-culture","tag-west-virginia-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-10z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}