Three early covers in 1940 were painted by Paul, but thereafter almost every cover was painted by either Finlay, Lawrence Stevens, or his son, Peter Stevens, including every single issue from February 1941 through April 1950. The high quality of the artwork helped make the magazine one of the most popular of its day, and sf historian Thomas Clareson has suggested that it was Finlay's work in "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" and "Fantastic Novels" that made his reputation. The decision to launch "Fantastic Novels" was taken partly because there were a great many book-length works that readers wanted to see reprinted. Gnaedinger commented that "Everyone seems to have realized that although [the] set-up of five to seven stories with two serials running, was highly satisfactory, that the long list of novels would have to be speeded up somehow". When "Fantastic Novels" was launched, "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" was partway through serialization of "The Blind Spot", by Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint, with the third episode appearing in the May/June 1940 issue. Rather than complete the serialization, Gnaedinger decided to print the novel in its entirety in the first issue of "Fantastic Novels", ensuring that readers of "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" would also acquire the new magazine. After "Fantastic Novels" ceased publication in 1941, "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" changed its policy, and began publishing a complete novel in every issue, rather than several stories and one or two serials running concurrently. Usually there were also short stories, but occasionally a particularly long novel would appear alone in the issue: this happened, for example, with the February 1942 issue, which contained Francis Stevens' "The Citadel of Fear", and no other fiction. When Munsey sold "Famous Fantastic Mysteries" to Popular, the editorial policy changed again, to exclude reprints of short fiction that had previously appeared in magazine form. Book length fiction continued to be reprinted, as did some shorter works that had appeared only in books, such as William Hope Hodgson's "The Derelict", and Robert W. Chambers' "The Mask", both of which appeared in the December 1943 issue. The reprinted novels included G. K. Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday", H. G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau", H. Rider Haggard's "The Ancient Allan", and works by Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and Arthur Machen.