Consisting of around 500 pages, Conley made use of GIF images and an early precursor to a "share" button while creating Astounding Space Thrills.

Conley was inspired by 1940s and 1950s science-fiction pulp magazines, comic strips, and television serials such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Commando Cody, and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger to create his webcomic.

The protagonist of Astounding Space Thrills shares his name with the classic pulp magazine Argosy, though his name was initially chosen for its naval definition.

[2] The first cover art of Astounding Space Thrills was a digitally painted collaboration between Conley and graphic artist Jim Steranko, with whom he previously worked with on internet and multimedia development.

[2] The pages of Astounding Space Thrills was originally published online as 468 pixels wide GIF images, to allow it to be self-syndicated while keeping the file size low.