The Executioner (book series)


The Executioner is a monthly men's action-adventure series following the exploits of the character Mack Bolan and his wars against organized crime and international terrorism. The series spans 453 installments and has sold more than 200 million copies since its debut installment, War Against the Mafia. The series was created and initially written by American author Don Pendleton, who penned 37 of the original 38 Bolan novels. In 1980, Pendleton licensed the rights to Gold Eagle and was succeeded by a collective of ghostwriters.
Since its inception in 1969, The Executioner series has spawned several spin-off series including Able Team, Phoenix Force, and Stony Man. Every other month, the Executioner series is complemented by the release of a Super Bolan, whose titles are twice the length of a standard Executioner novel.

Background

Mack Bolan is a Vietnam War veteran serving as a sniper. It is in these jungles where the young Bolan honed his military capabilities and his deadly accuracy. His 97 confirmed kills gave birth to the nickname he would carry for the rest of his life: The Executioner. Amidst the chaos of war, Bolan also earned the moniker "Sergeant Mercy", for his compassion and willingness to help innocent Vietnamese citizens put in harm's way or wounded by the conflict around them.
During his tour of duty, Bolan was called home on emergency leave to bury his family, who were killed by their father, Sam Bolan, in a triple-murder/suicide. Upon his return home, Bolan learned loan sharks from a local branch of the Mafia "family" had forced his sister Cynthia into a life of prostitution to pay back the family debt. Upon learning the news, his father could not bear it and committed the horrendous act. Only Bolan's 14-year-old brother Johnny survived his wounds.
Bolan realized that the real enemy was not in the jungles of Vietnam, but at home. The Mafia's schemes affected everyday innocent civilians such as his own family. Using the tactics he learned during his military combat, Bolan refused to return to Vietnam and instead took his war to the Mafia. City by city, he strikes ruthlessly to bring down the mafia and to clean the country of this horrific criminal organization. His actions would divide opinions. Some government and law enforcement officials were pleased with his efforts, while some sought to bring his war to an end.
In the end, the government offered Bolan amnesty under the condition he work for them. Bolan accepted and emerged under the name Colonel John Phoenix beginning his war against terrorism and the KGB. Bolan works in conjunction with Hal Brognola, the Director of the Sensitive Operations Group and the liaison between Bolan and the Oval Office. Phoenix was chosen to be Bolan's new alias in reference to the mythological bird that would resurrect itself from the ashes of a former life, just as Bolan had done after the events of Executioner #38, Satan's Sabbath.

Spinoff series

In the Mack Bolan universe there are two covert tactical neutralization teams assigned to Stony Man but which work separately from it: Able Team and Phoenix Force. Each had its own series of books until 1991, when Gold Eagle combined both series into one, Stony Man. In addition, the SuperBolan series emerged in 1985. These books are double the size of a regular Executioner title and are released every other month.
In France, a new spin-off series, Kira B., featuring Mack Bolan's "daughter" Kira, was introduced by the publisher Vauvenargues, in 2012. Written under the pen name Steven Belly, the series follows the adventures of Kira, a young woman who appeared in L'Exécuteur nº300: Le réseau Phénix, where she manipulated Mack Bolan to come out of retirement to fight against cyber-criminals. Since then, she has helped her "father" in his fight against crime and now is the heroine of her own, eponymous series.
#SeriesInstallmentsYears Active
1Able Team561982–1992
2Phoenix Force581982–1992
3Stony Man1291983, 1991–present
4SuperBolan1711983, 1985–present
4Kira B.52012–present
5SOBs > 71983–1989

''The Executioner Mystery Magazine''

In 1975, Leonard J. Ackerman Productions produced Don Pendleton's The Executioner Mystery Magazine, a digest-sized, pulp magazine anthology series along the same lines as the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The magazine had little connection to the Mack Bolan books save for the occasional story related to the Mafia. The magazine ran for only four issues, ending in August 1975, with the final issue titled simply The Executioner Mystery Magazine.

Other media

Audio Books

Select Executioner titles were distributed on audiocassette by DH Audio through #241. Unfortunately, DH Audio was dissolved and they're not publishing them anymore, as of fall 2001. You might still be able to purchase them through one of the online bookstores such as Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. These are abridged versions of the books, read by a single narrator performing multiple voices, and run about 3 hours, split across two tapes. Suggested retail is $7.99 or $9.99, and trust me, they are a really good value for the money. Tape quality is consistently good and narration/voice dramatization is at a good pace and effective. The only quibble I have is that with a guy performing voices, the female voices end up sounding either super-high pitched or masculine. Other than that, I'd recommend these if you prefer to hear a story rather than read it.
Stony Man Doctrine was also published as an audio cassette tape.
The first three books in the Executioner series in audio format were published by Books in Motion. They were cassette tapes.
Cutting Edge Audio published the Executioner & Stony Man series on audio, starting in October 2004 and beginning with Executioner 301 Blast Radius and Stony Man 68 Outbreak. They were available in truck stops throughout North America and online via Cuttingaudio.com. The company had no plans for selling them through regular retail outlets. They stopped publishing them around 2006/2007.

Movie screenplay

contracted Richard Maibaum in 1972 to write a screenplay, based on the fifth and sixth volumes, Continental Contract and Assault on Soho. A later attempt to adapt The Executioner to the screen by Burt Reynolds was to star Sylvester Stallone and Cynthia Rothrock, but the production was scrapped.
It was announced August 2014, that Shane Salerno, Hollywood producer, screenwriter has acquired the Executioner Mack Bolan Series of action/adventure novels for a film franchise.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has acquired the film rights of the book series with Bradley Cooper starring as Bolan, Shane Salerno writing and Todd Phillips directing.

Comics

The Executioner: War Against the Mafia was a comic book adaptation of the first novel by Don Pendleton and Linda Pendleton, published 1993 by Innovation Comics. Intended to run four issues, the final instalment was not published due to Innovation closing. Artwork was by Sandu Florea.
The Executioner: Death Squad was adapted by Linda Pendleton with art by Sandu Florea. It was a 128-page black and white comic, published in 1996 by Vivid Comics.
The Executioner was adapted into a five-part comic book series by IDW, written by Doug Wojtowicz and illustrated by S. I. Gallant. It was reissued as the graphic novel Don Pendleton's The Executioner: The Devil's Tool in November 2008. The reissued version contained an introduction by Linda Pendleton, "Don Pendleton's Creation of Mack Bolan, The Executioner".

Podcast

The Executioner books and spin-offs are featured on the August 5th, 2019 episode of the podcast. The show's hosts, Eric Compton and Tom Simon, discuss the series' origins including its impact on popular culture. Additionally, the show spotlights key authors that contributed to the series and its spin-offs. During that episode, Eric Compton reviews Executioner #88 Baltimore Trackdown by .

Works inspired by the Executioner series

The Executioner is often cited as the inspiration for the Marvel Comics character the Punisher, who also fights the Mafia, and The Destroyer series of novels, as well as James Glickenhaus' films The Exterminator and Exterminator 2.

Authors

See: List of authors in the Executioner series.

Series listing

  1. Kira 1: Ondes de Choc dans l'Oregon
  2. Kira 2: L'Aigle de Brandebourg
  3. Kira 3: Neige de sang sur Oslo
  4. Kira 4: Crisis
  5. Kira 5: La Quadrature sibérienne