Sailor Steve Costigan

Costigan, one of Howard's humorous boxing pulp heroes, roamed the Asiatic seas with fists of steel, a will of iron, and a head of wood.

A striking contrast between Howard's barbarians and swordsmen, Costigan was a modern-day character, written in a humorous, Texas tall tale style.

He established Costigan as a most unreliable narrator, a sailor who cannot admit when he has had a lot to drink, does not realize he is a terrible judge of character, and acts before he thinks.

Howard grew up in the storytelling tradition of the Southwest and the narrative structure of the Costigan stories mirrors this, especially in the endings, with their humorous stings, inappropriate life lessons, and outright punch lines.

When Magic Carpet Magazine opened up as a companion to Weird Tales, Howard took some of the unsold Costigan stories and submitted them to the potential new market.

They act, speak, and fight in exactly the same way, much like how there is no discernible difference between Howard's humorous western characters Breckenridge Elkins and Pike Bearfield.

“Dennis Dorgan” is counted as a separate character only because a number of the unsold Costigan stories were published by Darrell Richardson in the 1970s.

Robert E. Howard wrote the weird menace story "Skull Face" with a main character also called Stephen Costigan.