The stories were published in American pulp magazines from 1940 to 1951, featuring bright-colored cover illustrations by Earle K. Bergey and two fellow pulp artists. Captain Future's originating adventures appeared in his eponymous magazine, which ran from 1940 to 1944, coinciding with World War II. Bergey painted twelve of the seventeen "Captain Future" covers, and all ten subsequent "Startling Stories" covers under which additional Captain Future novels and novelettes were published. Of note, Bergey's art for "Captain Future", beginning with the third issue, marks the start of his groundbreaking work in the fields of science fiction and fantasy illustration.