The Screaming Mimi

          His eyes were a bit blurry from the drink ; the lights looked haloed but he knew they weren't. There wasn't a breath of breeze. He felt hot and sweaty, like the park, like the city. He took his hat off and fanned himself with it. Then some three-quarter drunken impulse made him hold the hat still and stare at it. It had been a new hat three weeks ago ; he'd bought it while he was still working at the Blade. Now it looked like nothing on earth ; it had been run over by an auto ; it had rolled in a muddy gutter ; it had been sat on and stepped on. It looked like Sweeney felt.

The Screaming Mimi

Frederic Brown

1949

image
Blackmask.com

Black Mask

           The kitten jumped off the desk and went to Kells' bloody head and sniffed delicately. Kells could feel the kitten's warm breath. Then everything got dark and he couldn't feel anything anymore.

Paul Cain
Fast One
published in
Black Mask Magazine
March 1932
                             https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-incomplete-cain/#!

Manhunt

       Although Black Mask magazine is more famous for almost creating the Hardboiled/Noir genre in an earlier period, in later times Manhunt helped a number of the now revered authors (Lawrence Block,etc) whose novels we know so well get started in the business and also published work by more established guys .

Earliest Examples of Hardboiled

       
         The short-story 'The Killers' by Ernest Hemingway first appeared in 1927 followed by Dasheill Hammet's novel 'Red Harvest' in1929. Also Black Mask featured prototype versions of hardboiled stuff possibly as early as 1923.

       Hemingway wrote many other great examples in short story form such as ' A Clean Well lighted Place' with a heavy Noirish atmosphere.

                                           Hammett's desk & view from his apartment