Ask most people to name their favourite Robert E Howard character and the chances are they'll pick Conan or Solomon Kane, but for me - these days - it has to be Sailor Steve Costigan, star of many of Howard's light-hearted boxing stories.
I'll be honest and fess up to the fact that until 2007 I hadn't even heard of Steve Costigan, but then I had a letter published in one of Dark Horse comics' Conan titles berating them for an anachronistic brawl between the title character and a "guy in a T-shirt".
When I was informed that this was an homage to another of Howard's creations, I did some investigating and discovered Sailor Steve - a contemporary (ie 1930s) heavyweight boxer crewing on the merchant ship Sea Girl as it sails the Asiatic seas (with his pet bulldog, Mike).
Interest piqued by this pulp pugilist, I picked up a copy of Howard's Boxing Stories (published by Bison Books in 2005) and was immediately entranced by the colloquial style of patois Howard adopted for these stories.
These are witty, lyrical, tall tales full of two-fisted brawling and comedic misfortune, and come highly recommended.
Although I believe that Howard wrote more stories about Costigan than for any of his more fantastical characters, Sailor Steve isn't as 'mainstream' as Conan and Kane.
This is a shame, because Steve really is a more relatable character than most of the other members of Howard's stable of stallions.
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