Mack Bolan
| Mack Bolan | |
|---|---|
| The Executioner character | |
| First appearance | The Executioner #1: War Against The Mafia |
| Created by | Don Pendleton |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Vigilante |
| Nationality | American |
Mack Bolan, alias The Executioner, is a fictional character who has been serialized in over 600 novels with sales of more than 200 million books. Created by Don Pendleton, Bolan made his first appearance on the printed page in War Against the Mafia (1969). Pendleton wrote 37 other novels featuring Bolan, often referred to as the "Mafia Wars". In 1980, Pendleton sold his rights to the character to Gold Eagle, which hired a number of ghostwriters to continue publishing Bolan monthly, to satisfy reader demand worldwide. Don Pendleton remained credited as the sole author and supervised these new adventures, which took the Bolan character all over the world fighting terrorism. This new series of books featured Bolan as a principled warrior fighting larger-than-life adversaries in the spirit of a tougher, American version of James Bond. The demand for the books continued, and Gold Eagle began releasing as many as 15 titles annually. Additionally, Bolan was "spun off" into several new adventure book series which also carried the Mack Bolan/Don Pendleton names and sold remarkably well. As of 2014, there are still more than a dozen Mack Bolan novels published every year worldwide by Gold Eagle Books, a division of Harlequin Books.
When asked his name and rank in Colorado Kill Zone, he replied, "Bolan, Mack Samuel, Master Sergeant". Bolan, born in 1939 and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is of Welsh-Polish heritage and is the eldest of the three children of steelworker Samuel Bolan and his wife, Elsa. Bolan enlisted in the Army at age 18 and served two tours of duty in Vietnam, as a Green Beret, even though newer novels do not make any reference to this as it makes him seem too old.
Bolan became an expert sniper with over 90 kills to his record, earning him the nickname "The Executioner". For all his lethal capability, Bolan was deeply compassionate and became known as "Sgt. Mercy", because of the aid he often gave to Vietnamese civilians and others who needed help.
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Wikipedia