Sailor Steve Costigan
Encyclopedia
Sailor Steve Costigan is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

. He is a merchant sailor on the Sea Girl and is also its champion boxer. His only true companion is a bulldog
Bulldog
Bulldog is the name for a breed of dog commonly referred to as the English Bulldog. Other Bulldog breeds include the American Bulldog, Olde English Bulldogge and the French Bulldog. The Bulldog is a muscular heavy dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose...

 named Mike (after his brother and fellow boxer, "Iron" Mike Costigan).

Costigan, one of Howard's humorous boxing pulp
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 heroes, roamed the Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

tic 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
Tall tale
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely...

 style. The Sailor Steve Costigan stories were very popular in the pages of Fight Stories
Fight Stories
Fight Stories was a pulp magazine devoted to stories of Boxing published between June 1928 and spring 1952...

, Action Stories
Action Stories
Action Stories was a multi-genre pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950, with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932.As an adventure pulp it did not feature the horror and science fiction of other pulp magazines. Instead it focused on real-world adventure stories...

, and the short-lived Jack Dempsey’s Fight Magazine. In a career that was made up largely from writing short stories about recurring characters, Howard wrote more stories about Costigan and his pugilistic ilk than about any of his fantasy heroes.

Style

Howard used understatement and misdirection to create humor. He established Costigan as a most unreliable narrator
Unreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...

, a sailor who can’t admit when he’s had a lot to drink, doesn’t realize he is a terrible judge of character, and acts before he thinks. These character flaws are the heart of the boxing series and make Costigan as sympathetic as he is hilarious. Told in a jaunty first person style and in the past tense, the Costigan stories are presented in a slang-riddled, colloquial fashion. Howard grew up in the story telling 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.

Dennis Dorgan

When Magic Carpet Magazine
Oriental Stories
Oriental Stories, later retitled The Magic Carpet Magazine, was a pulp magazine of 1930-34, an offshoot of the famous Weird Tales....

 opened up as a companion to Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, Howard took some of the unsold Costigan stories and submitted them to the potential new market. The editor of both Magic Carpet and Weird Tales, Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright
Farnsworth Wright was the editor of the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the magazine's heyday.He was born in California, and educated in the University of Nevada and the University of Washington....

, was already publishing one story by Robert E. Howard, and requested the author use a pseudonym for the boxing story. Howard chose "Patrick Ervin" for himself, and then not wanting readers to question why someone named Ervin would write about Robert E. Howard's Steve Costigan character from Fight Stories, decided to change his main character’s name as well. Howard resurrected the “Dorgan” surname from an earlier boxing story that was changed to a Costigan yarn, and added the more alliterative first name of “Dennis.” Every other character in the story remained the same; the name of the ship, the crew, and the bulldog. Dorgan was little more than a disguise for Costigan. With the pseudonyms in place, Wright accepted four Dennis Dorgan stories. After the fact, Howard changed the name of the Sea Girl to the Python, and the Mike into Spike. Bill O’Brien, Mushy Hanson, and Sven Larson stayed the same.

Only one Dorgan story, “The Alleys of Singapore", however, was published (renamed “Alleys of Darkness”) before Magic Carpet ceased publication as well. Jack Dempsey’s Fight Magazine started after that, and Howard managed to place three more Costigan stories before the magazine folded. Fight Stories, after a hiatus of two years, returned as a quarterly magazine in 1934 and continued to reprint the Costigan stories for years after Howard’s death, changing the titles and eventually crediting the authorship to their house pseudonym, "Mark Adam".

Despite these characters having different names, Costigan and Dorgan are the same character. 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. Howard himself never really considered that the name Dorgan to be anything other than a pseudonym for Costigan, and went back to Costigan more than once.

Fictional character biography

Steve Costigan is an Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

 from Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

 (Texas Fists, 1931). He has one brother, Mike, who is also a boxer and has been more successful in this sport than Steve himself (The Bull Dog Breed, 1930). He left Texas to become a sailor, soon becoming an Able Seaman (AB)
Able Seaman (occupation)
An able seaman is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles.-Watchstander:...

 on the merchant ship Sea Girl (registered in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

). While he has worked on other ships, he considers this to be his home.

He has been an amateur boxer since childhood. Steve always likes to be champion of whichever ship or organisation he is part of (Circus Fists, 1931). Subsequently the only title he really holds is "Champion of the Sea Girl" (which he refers to as "The Fighten'est Ship Afloat"). He found his pet bulldog, Mike, as a stray in Dublin and named him after his brother (The Bull Dog Breed, 1930). Steve is a heavyweight
Heavyweight
Heavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...

 boxer, weighing 190lb
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

 and standing 6 ft (1.8 m) tall. He has the "Black Irish
Black Irish
Black Irish is an ambiguous term used mainly outside of Ireland. Over the course of history, it has been subject to several distinctive ascriptions, including religious affiliation and poverty. Modern traditionalists, however, maintain the term to be synonymous with a dark-haired phenotype...

" combination of blue eyes and black hair.

Alleys of Peril

First printed in Fight Stories
Fight Stories
Fight Stories was a pulp magazine devoted to stories of Boxing published between June 1928 and spring 1952...

, January 1931. Also known as Leather Lightning.

The Pit of the Serpent

First printed in Fight Stories, July 1929. Also known as Manila Manslaughter.

Blow the Chinks Down!

First printed in Action Stories
Action Stories
Action Stories was a multi-genre pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950, with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932.As an adventure pulp it did not feature the horror and science fiction of other pulp magazines. Instead it focused on real-world adventure stories...

, October 1931. Also known as The House of Peril.

Breed of Battle

First printed in Action Stories, November 1931. Also known as The Fighten'est Pair, Sampson Had a Soft Spot.

The Bull Dog Breed

First printed in Fight Stories, February 1930. Also known as You Got to Kill a Bulldog.

Champ of the Forecastle

First printed in Fight Stories, November 1930. Also known as Champ of the Seven Seas, The Champion of the Forecastle.

Circus Fists

First printed in Fight Stories, December 1931. Also known as Slugger Bait.

Dark Shanghai

First printed in Action Stories, January 1932. Also known as One Shanghai Night.

Fist and Fang

First printed in Fight Stories, May 1930. Also known as Cannibal Fists.

General Ironfist

First printed in Jack Dempsey's Fight Magazine, June 1934.

Night of Battle

First printed in Fight Stories, March 1932. Also known as Shore Leave for a Slugger.

Sailor's Grudge

First printed in Fight Stories, March 1930. Also known as Costigan vs. Kid Camera.

The Sign of the Snake

First printed in Action Stories, June 1931.

The Slugger's Game

First printed in Jack Dempsey's Fight Magazine, May 1934.

Sluggers on the Beach

First printed in Jack Dempsey's Fight Magazine, August 1934.

Texas Fists

First printed in Fight Stories, May 1931. Also known as Shanghied Mitts.

The TNT Punch

First printed in Action Stories, January 1931. Also known as The Waterfront Law, The Waterfront Wallop.

Vikings of the Gloves

First printed in Fight Stories, February 1932. Also known as Including the Scandinavian.

Waterfront Fists

First printed in Fight Stories, September 1930. Also known as Stand Up and Slug.

Winner Take All

First printed in Fight Stories, July 1930. Also known as Sucker Fight. Costigan enters into a quick match, for a purse of $36.50, in Singapore to raise money for $1 mining shares that will soon be worth $1000.

Alleys of Darkness

First printed in Magic Carpet Magazine
Oriental Stories
Oriental Stories, later retitled The Magic Carpet Magazine, was a pulp magazine of 1930-34, an offshoot of the famous Weird Tales....

, January 1934. Also known as Alleys of Singapore. It is the only Dennis Dorgan story that saw print during Howard's life.

Alleys of Treachery

First printed in The Howard Collector #8, Summer 1966. Also known as The Mandarin Ruby.

The Destiny Gorilla

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as Sailor Costigan and the Destiny Gorilla and Sailor Dorgan and the Destiny Gorilla.

In High Society

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as Cultured Cauliflowers.

A Knight of the Round Table

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as Iron-Clad Fists.

Playing Journalist

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as A New Game for Costigan and A New Game for Dorgan.

Playing Santa Claus

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as A Two-Fisted Santa Claus.

Sailor Dorgan and the Jade Monkey

First printed in The Howard Collector #14, Spring 1971. Also known as Sailor Costigan and the Jade Monkey and The Jade Monkey.

The Turkish Menace

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as Sailor Dorgan and the Turkish Menace and Sailor Costigan and the Turkish Menace. This story was sold to Magic Carpet Magazine in May 1933 but the magazine was suspended before publication.

The Yellow Cobra

First printed in The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan (1974). Also known as Sailor Dorgan and the Yellow Cobra, A Korean Night and A Night Ashore.

Skull Face

Robert E. Howard wrote the weird menance story "Skull Face" with a main character also called Stephen Costigan. This Costigan is distinct from Sailor Steve Costigan, as the Skull Face version is a drug-addicted former-WW1 soldier suffering from shell shock
Shell Shock
Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....

. "Skull Face" was first printed in Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, October 1929, in a three part series ending in December, 1929.

Crew of the Sea Girl

  • The Old Man: The Welsh
    Welsh people
    The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

     owner and captain of the Sea Girl. He is most familiar with the South Pacific and South China Sea. He frequently makes bad bets whilst drunk, which often adds to Steve's problems.
  • Mike: Steve's white bulldog and best friend. He has killed several people, often by ripping their throat out. Steve has trained him not to interfere with fights in the ring and not to attack women. Mike largely mirrors Steve's personality.
  • Bill O’Brien: Another Irish-American sailor/boxer aboard the Sea Girl. He is Steve's best (human) friend.
  • Mushy Hanson: (Over 6 ft (1.8 m), 200 lb) A Danish sailor/boxer aboard the Sea Girl. Mushy is an amateur poet and keeps a collection of Dime novels.
  • Sven Larson: (6 ft 4in, 245 lb) A Swedish sailor/boxer who constantly challenges Steve for the title of Champion of the Sea Girl. (Champ of the Forecastle
    Champ of the Forecastle
    Champ of the Forecastle is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in November 1930 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )

Opponents

  • Bat Slade: (5 ft 10in, slightly less than 190lb
    Pound (mass)
    The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

    ) Champion of the Dauntless. (The Pit of the Serpent
    The Pit of the Serpent
    The Pit of the Serpent is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in July 1929 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Bert Harper: (6 ft 1in, 198 lb) A sailor acting as a stunt-double in Hollywood. (Sailor's Grudge
    Sailor's Grudge
    Sailor's Grudge is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in March 1930 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Big John Clancy: (6 ft 1¾in, 230 lb) Bouncer at Ladeau's American Bar. (The Sign of the Snake
    The Sign of the Snake
    "The Sign of the Snake" is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in June 1931 issue of Action Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Biff Leary: (5 ft 10in, 195 lb) Champion of the Bueno Oro mine. (Texas Fists
    Texas Fists
    Texas Fists is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in May 1931 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Bill Brand: (6 ft, 190 lb) An English boxer from the King William. (Hard-Fisted Sentiment)
  • Bill Cairn, the Ironville Blacksmith: (6 ft 1¼in, 210 lb) Title contender from Ironville, Nevada. (Circus Fists
    Circus Fists
    Circus Fists is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in December 1931 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Bill McGlory: (6 ft, 190 lb) A sailor on the Dutchman. (Blow the Chinks Down!
    Blow the Chinks Down!
    Blow the Chinks Down! is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in October 1931 issue of Action Stories.-External links:*...

    )
  • Black Jack O'Brien: (6 ft, 190 lb) Sailor/boxer from the Water Snake. Has black hair and blue eyes like Costigan. (Night of Battle
    Night of Battle
    Night of Battle is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in March 1932 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Bucko Brent: (6 ft 1¾in, 189 lb) The brutal, Australia
    Australia
    Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

    n mate of the Nagpur. (The TNT Punch
    The TNT Punch
    The TNT Punch is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in January 1931 issue of Action Stories. It has been reprinted under the titles The Waterfront Law and The Waterfront Wallop since Howard's death...

    )
  • Frenchy Ladeau: (6 ft 1in, 180 lb) A French kickboxer from the S.S. de Comte. Specializes in savate. (Hard-Fisted Sentiment)
  • Hakon Torkilsen: (6 ft 1in, 185 lb) Danish
    Denmark
    Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

     champion of the Viking and "Pride of Denmark". (Vikings of the Gloves
    Vikings of the Gloves
    Vikings of the Gloves is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the February 1932 issue of Fight Stories. It was reprinted under the title Including the Scandinavian! after Howard's death and attributed to the Fight Stories housename "Mark Adam"...

    )
  • Joel Ballerin, General Ironfist: (6 ft ½in, 200 lb) Australian mercenary who leads a Chinese rebel army under the name General Feng. (General Ironfist
    General Ironfist
    General Ironfist is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in June 1934 issue of Jack Dempsey's Fight Magazine. Howard earned $35 for the sale of this story which is now in the public domain....

    )
  • Limey Grieson: (6 ft, 189 lb) Fighter at Ace's. (Breed of Battle
    Breed of Battle
    Breed of Battle is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in November 1931 issue of Action Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Panther Cortez: (6 ft 1in, 185 lb) A sailor on the Water Snake. Has a reputation for fighting dirty. (Winner Take All
    Winner Take All (short story)
    "Winner Take All" is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in July 1930 issue of Fight Stories...

    )
  • Red McCoy: (5 ft 8in, 185 lb) Fighter from the Whale. (Alleys of Peril
    Alleys of Peril
    Alleys of Peril is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in January 1931 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Red Roach: (6 ft 3in, 193 lb) Champion of the Ruffian. A redheaded, cross-eyed southpaw. (Waterfront Fists
    Waterfront Fists
    Waterfront Fists is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in September 1930 issue of Fight Stories...

    )
  • Shark Murken: (6 ft 2in, 215 lb) Smuggler who controls the island of Barricuda. (By the Law of the Shark)
  • Tiger Valois: (6 ft 1½in, 205 lb) The heavyweight champion of the French
    French people
    The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

     navy. (The Bull Dog Breed
    The Bull Dog Breed
    The Bulldog Breed is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in February 1930 issue of Fight Stories.The story is now in the public domain.-External links:*...

    )
  • Battling Santos, the Borneo Tiger: (6 ft 1½in, 200 lb) Once famous Solomon Islander
    Solomon Islands
    Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

     boxer. (Fist and Fang
    Fist and Fang
    Fist and Fang is a Sailor Steve Costigan short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in May 1930 issue of Fight Stories. Howard earned $100 for the sale of this story. It is also known by the title Cannibal Fists....

    )

Other

  • "Iron" Mike Costigan: (5 ft 11in, 195 lb) Steve's brother. He is mentioned but doesn't directly appear in the Sailor Steve Costigan stories.

See also

  • List of works by Robert E. Howard

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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