He worked as a telegrapher for the Southern Pacific Railroad until 1957, and then as an air traffic control specialist for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The best-selling Executioner series made the men's action-adventure genre popular in the late 1960s and 1970s, and Pendleton was known as "the father of action adventure", a term he coined.
[4] Pendleton ignored "Sicilian Slaughter" and wrote The Executioner #17: Jersey Guns, as a sequel to #15, Panic in Philly, under a contract with New American Library.
The Harlequin Gold Eagle books moved Bolan into a fight against terrorism, in whose course he was given the cover identity of "Colonel John Macklin Phoenix."
[citation needed] The Joe Copp series of six hardcover novels often had over-the-top action moments reminiscent to those found of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.
It was announced August 2014 that Shane Salerno, Hollywood producer and screenwriter, had optioned the Executioner novels for a film franchise.
[8] Spider-Man writer Gerry Conway (who went on to become a show runner on Dick Wolf's Law & Order series) has acknowledged that his creation of Marvel's Punisher character was directly inspired by Pendleton's Executioner, in perhaps the most blatantly direct adaptation (or less politely, "lift") of Pendleton's character.