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Jerry Cotton is the fictional FBI-agent in a series of Crime novels by many different writers in German-speaking countries. These novels were the most commercially successful series with approximately 850 million copies sold.
Overview
The adventures of fictional FBI-agent Jerry Cotton, taking place in and around the city of New York. In 1954 the first novel appeared as no. 68: "Ich suchte den Gangster-Chef" (I was looking for the gangster-boss) in the series "Bastei Kriminalroman". The pseudonym "Jerry Cotton" was developed in 1956 and the first novella with this name on the front-page appeared with the title "Ich jagte den Diamanten-Hai" (I hunted down the diamond-shark). In 2005 the series reached the 2500th edition, "Expenditure".
A group of over 100 authors write for the magazines, sold in many kiosks and over newsagents. Rolf Kalmuczak, who is the major author behind this name, made the TKKG series famous as Stefan Wolf.
The motto of the series could be described as "Crime without Sex", as women arise as characters only once in a while. Important figures of the series are, besides Cotton, his partner Phil Decker, FBI-chief John D. High, Annie Geraldo, Zeerookah, June Clark, Roby O'Hara, Myrna, Windermeere and his Smith & Wesson, a 38 Caliber Smith & Wesson Special. Jerry Cotton also drives a red Jaguar E-type, built in 1966.
Even tough Jerry Cotton novels are considered trivial literature by some people, the FBI agent has a faithful fan community (just like his equally longlived Science Fiction counterpart , Perry Rhodan). Several Jerry Cotton novels were adapted as radio plays.
One of the few pages in German states that Jerry Cotton indeed is a fictional agent and therefore it doesn't make sense to write fan-letters to him.
Authors
Prominent authors, who admit cooperation with the Jerry Cotton series include:
- Walter Appel
- Martin Barkawitz
- Horst Friedrichs
- Heinz Werner Höber
- Friedrich Jankuba
- Rolf Kalmuczak (= Stefan Wolf, "TKKG")
- Helmut Rellergert (= Jason Dark, "Geisterjäger John Sinclair")
- Friedrich Tenkrat
- Manfred Weinland
Jerry Cotton-Movies
Starting in the 1960s, a series of eight films based on the Cotton novels were made, the first four in black-and-white, the last four in color. The character of Jerry Cotton was played by American actor George Nader, and his companion Phil Decker was played by the German actor Heinz Weiß. The director of the films was Harald Reinl. The film's music was composed by Peter Thomas including the "Jerry Cotton March", that also was released on a now soundtrack-single. In the 1990s the sountracks of the movies were re-released on CDs.
The links refer to the German pages at IMDb.
- Mordnacht in Manhattan (1965) * (s/w)
- Schüsse aus dem Geigengasten (1965) * (s/w)
- Die Rechnung - eiskalt serviert (1966) * (s/w)
- Um Null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu (1966) * (s/w)
- Der Mörderclub von Brooklyn (1967) * (color)
- Tod im Roten Jaguar (1968) * (color)
- Dynamit in grüner Seide (1968) * (color)
- Todesschüsse am Broadway (1969) * (color)
External links
- Bastei publishing house with detailed Jerry Cotton pages (German)
- 50 years Jerry Cotton (German)
- Page at German TV-station 3Sat "Jerry Cotton investigating" (German)
- cotton forum.de/InterNet Site of the Jerry Cotton forum (German)
- Jerry Cotton-soundtracks (English)
Characters in written fiction | Film series | Film characters
"Jerry Cotton"