After Pohl entered the army in early 1943, wartime paper shortages led Popular to cease publication of Astonishing.
Science fiction critic Peter Nicholls comments that "its stories were surprisingly good considering how little was paid for them",[1] and this view has been echoed by other historians of the field.
[4] Erisman turned him down, but suggested that Pohl contact Rogers Terrill at Popular Publications, a leading pulp publisher.
Erisman had heard that Popular was starting a new line of magazines, and thought that they might be interested in adding a science fiction title.
[4][notes 3] Pohl later commented that he was uncertain whether the additional funds really helped to bring in higher quality submissions, although at the time he assured Steeger it would improve the magazine.
[15] Some of the additional money went to long-time writer Ray Cummings, who was sufficiently well known that the young Pohl felt unable to reject his stories, even though he disliked his work.
For example, a long letter column took up several pages but required no payment; similarly, running advertisements for Popular's other magazines did not use up the fiction budget.
More money was saved by reusing snipped elements of black and white illustrations to fill space, as multiple uses of the same artwork did not require additional payments to the artist.
[22] Paper was difficult to obtain because of the war, and Popular decided to close the magazine down; the final issue, dated April 1943, was assembled with the assistance of Ejler Jakobsson.
Kornbluth, Richard Wilson and Donald Wollheim; the Futurians were eager to become professional writers and were glad to submit stories to Pohl.
Kornbluth and Wilson wrote a first draft, alternating turns at the typewriter; the result was edited by Harry Dockweiler, another Futurian, and then again by Pohl before it appeared in the April 1940 Astonishing under the title "Stepsons of Mars", with a byline of "Ivar Towers".
Particularly after his marriage to Doris Baumgardt in August 1940, Pohl realized that his salary covered their apartment rent with almost no money left over, and began to augment his income by selling to himself as well as to other magazines.
[7] When Pohl lost his job as editor in late 1941, he had bought from himself (and paid for) a couple of stories that he had not actually written, and hence had to write them very quickly and turn them in.
Despite the difficulties caused by the low budget, Pohl was able to pay his authors promptly, unlike some of his competitors, and he thus began to receive stories of higher quality.
[4] The reviews, primarily by Wollheim, but also including contributions from Richard Wilson, Forrest Ackerman, and John Michel, were of a higher standard than elsewhere in the field, and historian Paul Carter regards Astonishing and Super Science Stories as the place where "book reviewing for the first time began to merit the term 'literary criticism'", and adds that "it was in those magazines that the custom began of paying attention to science fiction on the stage and screen also.
Much of the art was supplied by fans and artists early in their careers, including Doris Baumgardt (under the pseudonym Leslie Perri) and Dorothy Les Tina, who later became Pohl's first and second wives, respectively.
More professional art began to appear in the magazine, including work by Virgil Finlay, Alexander Leydenfrost, Leo Morey, Hans Wessolowski, and Frank R. Paul, all well known in the field.
[1][4] However, Nicholls adds that "its stories were surprisingly good considering how little was paid for them",[1] and Wolf and Thompson agree, claiming that "there was much that was memorable in Astonishing, both by way of immediate appeal and of more lasting quality".