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.
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.
[2] During his service in the Vietnam War, Bolan became highly adept at penetration and intelligence gathering, guerrilla warfare and became a skilled armorer.
Unable to work, with bills piling up, Bolan's father was forced to borrow money from Triangle Industrial Finance ("TIF"), a savings-and-loan outfit known around town as a loansharking operation controlled by the family of Don Sergio Frenchi, the godfather of the Mafia in western Massachusetts.
When Johnny found Cindy servicing a client in a motel room, he blew the whistle to his father ... an act that resulted in the elder Bolan's striking him.
After Johnny told him the whole story, Bolan broke into a sportsman's shop and took a high-powered Marlin .444, a deluxe scope, some targets, and several boxes of ammunition, leaving an envelope of money to cover the "purchase".
He occasionally takes missions from Stony Man's director and personal friend, Hal Brognola, and the President of the United States.
[7] He holds current lover, Barbara Price, at arm's length out of fear she, like Val and April, will be threatened, harmed, or killed.
He prefers the gutsy type who are not apt to run away when shot at, which explains his deep affection for Querente, federal agent Toby Ranger, and April Rose.
His primary long gun was the .460 Weatherby Mark V, which he obtained from Nicholas "Nick Trigger" Woods, a top Mafia hitman sent to kill him.
The Brigadier and AutoMag have since been supplanted by the current favorites, the Beretta 93R and .44 Magnum Desert Eagle, though Bolan has demonstrated facility with any pistol or rifle he comes across, and often carries a knife.
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,[10] where she manipulated Mack Bolan to come out of retirement to fight against cyber-criminals.
In 1985, Gesture Press published Canadian poet Mark Laba's The Mack Bolan Poems, inspired by Pendleton's Jersey Guns.
In 2008, a five-issue comic book miniseries was released by IDW Publishing titled "Don Pendleton's The Executioner: The Devil's Tools", starring Mack Bolan.