Mack Bolan
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Mack Bolan, alias The Executioner, is a fictional character who has been serialized in over six hundred novels.When asked his name and rank in Colorado Kill Zone, he replied, "Bolan, Mack Samuel. Master Sergeant." He made his first appearance on the printed page in 1969's War Against The Mafia. The novel was written by author Don Pendleton, who would go on to write 36 more Bolan novels before he sold the rights of Mack Bolan to Gold Eagle. These novels are often referred to as the "Mafia Wars" novels as opposed to the Stony Man and the War Everlasting, which were to follow. At the present time Mack Bolan books are published by Gold Eagle Books, a division of Harlequin Books.
Bolan currently works on his own at arms length distance from the US Federal Government agency Stony Man. He occasionally takes missions from Stony Man's director and personal friend Hal Brognola and the President of the United States. Frequently he returns to Stony Man to lead the agency on missions.
Mack met many of the other characters in the Executioner novels in a variety of different circumstances. His friend, Hal Brognola was assigned by the President of the United States to hunt down and kill Mack, which he tried to do. Leo Turrin was a Pittsfield, Massachusetts mafia underboss and federal undercover informant, and Bolan's best friend. Jack Grimaldi was a pilot for the Mafia when he was befriended by Mack and persuaded to join the fight against the Mafia. Carl Lyons was a young policeman working for the Los Angeles police when he was assigned to Project Hardcase, which had as its goal the hunting down of Mack.
Mack has been on trial for his extra-judicial activities in book # 91, the Trial. As well as being in two nuclear explosions, he has been knifed numerous times and shot several times in various different parts of his body, most recently in his left shoulder. He has been in numerous grenade explosions as well as having several warehouse roofs come down on his head. He speaks English, Spanish, Russian and passable German and can understand countless others. Mack has been in love once before with April Rose, but holds current lover Barbara Price at an arms length out of fear that she will be killed. No one has ever claimed that Mack does not like women, he prefers the gutsy type that are not one to run and hide when shot at. In one novel a woman he was working with claimed that he likes his women "barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen." To which Mack replies "No, I like them alive." In his spare time he likes extreme sports such as canoeing several rivers in flood stage. He typically likes to spend his spare time either with Barbara Price or pursuing an extreme sport. His weapons of choice are the Beretta 93R which he traditionally carries in a vertical shoulder rig, and Big Thunder, a stainless steel .44 AutoMag he usually wears on his hip.
Barbara has been married once before to a man that could not stay faithful. Only two of the Stony Man staff currently have children or have ever been married including Carl Lyons and Hal Brognola.
In the 1970s, Marvel Comics based their anti-hero The Punisher on Don Pendleton's character. Both were Vietnam War veterans who had their families murdered by the mafia and were driven to seek revenge. Additionally, the "War Journal", battle van and weaponry were all used in The Executioner series before the Punisher was created. In one of Marvel's magazines featuring the Punisher, an interview with Don Pendleton commented on his "indirect" influence on the Punisher character.
In addition to the main Executioner series, several spin-off book series have been published expanding Pendleton's universe, including Mack Bolan, Able Team, Phoenix Force, Super Bolan and Stony Man. More than 670 Mack Bolan/Executioner/Super Bolan/Stony Man/Phoenix Force/Able Team novels have been published over the last 38 years, making it one of the most prolific series of original novels centered around one character published in the English language.
[edit] Authors
Here is a comprehensive list of authors who have at one point in time written a Mack Bolan/Executioner novel, or a spin-off novel for the series (i.e. Able Team, Phoenix Force, or Stony Man).
| Don Pendleton | Dan Marlowe | Patrick F. Rogers | |
| Tom Arnett | Charlie McDade | Ken Rose | |
| Andy Boot | Mike McQuay | Mark Sadler | |
| Nicholas Cain | Stephen Mertz | Kirk Sanson | |
| E. Richard Churchill | Gerald Addison Montgomery | Dan Schmidt | |
| Chet Cunningham | Will Murray | C.J. Shiao | |
| Les Danforth | Patrick Neary | Wiley Slade | |
| Kent Delaney | Judy Newton | Tim Somheil | |
| Mark Ellis | Michael Newton | Gayle Stone | |
| William Fieldhouse | Paul Glen Neuman | Dan Streib | |
| G. H. Frost | David North | Rex Swenson | |
| Carl Furst | Raymond Obstfeld | Timothy Tresslar | |
| Jack Garside | Mel Odom | Nik Uhernik | |
| Roland Green | L. R. Payne | Jerry VanCook | |
| Jon Guenther | Rod Pennington | David Wade | |
| Aaron Hill | Alan Philipson | Saul Wernick | |
| Paul Hofrichter | Nick Pollotta | Douglas Wojtowicz | |
| Robert Hoskins | Larry Powell | Nathan Meyer | |
| Tom Jagninski | Rick Price | ||
| Michael W. Kasner | Rich Rainey | ||
| Steven Krauzer | Thomas Ramirez | ||
| Peter Leslie | Kevin Randall | ||
| Michael Linaker | Ron Renauld | ||
| Larry Lind | David L. Robbins | ||
| James Lord | Chuck Rogers (1985-1987) | ||
| Chuck Rogers (1996-present) |
