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 (as of December 2017) 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.