James Axler is a house pseudonym used by Gold Eagle Books, the action adventure imprint of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

The pseudonym was first used for the Deathlands series, which began in 1986 with Pilgrimage to Hell, created by Christopher Lowder (under the pseudonym Jack Adrian) and co-written with Laurence James who continued Deathlands until retiring from the series in 1995.

At that point, prolific author and comics creator Mark Ellis took over the Axler pen name.

Ellis created the popular Death Hawk character and also developed/created Star Rangers, The Justice Machine, Ninja Elite and The Miskatonic Project as well as working on such popular properties as Doc Savage, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, The Avenger, The Green Hornet, The Saint and The Wild Wild West and King Solomon's Mines.

Ellis contributed novels to Gold Eagle's Deathlands and Mack Bolan The Executioner series.

In 1996 he created the best-selling OUTLANDERS series. He has produced more books as James Axler than any other writer.

With the cancellation of the Gold Eagle imprint at the end of 2015, OUTLANDERS ended its 18.5 year run, making it the most successful mass-market paperback series of the last 30 years.

Mark Ellis has been featured in Starlog, Comics Scene and Fangoria magazines. He has also been interviewed by Robert Siegel for NPR's All Things Considered.

His fifty-plus books include THE EVERYTHING GUIDE TO WRITING GRAPHIC NOVELS, CRYPTOZOICA, THE SPUR: LOKI'S ROCK, THE SPUR: HELLDORADO, THE FALCON RESURRECTED and NOSFERATU: PLAGUE OF TERROR.

His most recent books are PARALLAX PRIME: OF DIRE CHIMERAS (2017), KNIGHTWATCH: INVICTUS X and DEATH HAWK THE COMPLETE SAGA (2019).

He lives in rural Ireland with his wife, best-selling author Melissa Martin Ellis.