THE COMPLETE SLAYERS

First edition with these illustrations. Limited edition. Signed by the authors of the introduction and the artist. Publisher's original quarter black and red cloth with titles in silver to the spine, in the Ron Lesser illustrated dustwrapper. Red silk bookmark. Illustrated with colour plates of the cover art, and black and white line drawings by Ron Lesser. Includes a gallery of colour facsimiles of previous hardback and paperback editions of 'Fast One' and 'Seven Slayers', in addition to colour facsimiles of previous Black Mask Magazine front covers. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, with very light band of toning at the tail of the upper board. The contents are clean throughout, and without previous owners' inscriptions and stamps. Complete with the original pictorial dustwrapper, which is bright and fresh, with one small crease to the front panel, and otherwise without fading, loss, or tears.

Issued in an edition of 500 copies, from which this example is numbered 440 and signed by the illustrator Ron Lesser and contributors Max Allan Collins and Lynn F. Myers Jr. in black ink on the colophon. The complete fiction of Paul Cain, including the 13 stories in the "slayers" saga, brilliant works of noir fiction, and the novel 'Fast One' (1933). With his debut publication of 'Fast One', Cain joined an elite group of classic hard-boiled pulp crime writers introduced to the literary world via The Black Mask Magazine, with other key members including Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Erle Stanley Gardner.