 The book reviews in Super Science Stories 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 ' " , adding that " it was in those magazines that the custom began of paying attention to science fiction on the stage and screen also " . The artwork was initially amateurish , and although it improved over the years , even the better artists such as Virgil <unk> and Lawrence Stevens continued to produce <unk> depictions of half @-@ dressed women threatened by robots or aliens . H. R. van <unk> , later a prolific cover artist for Astounding , made his first science fiction art sale to Super Science Stories for the cover of the September 1950 issue . 
