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 the Diamond Shark).

Important figures of the series include, besides Cotton, his partner Phil Decker, FBI-chief John D. High, veteran agent Neville, Annie Geraldo, Zeerookah, June Clark, Roby O'Hara, Myrna, Windermeere and his Smith & Wesson, a 38 Caliber Smith & Wesson Special.

regard Jerry Cotton novels as trivial literature, the FBI agent has a faithful fan community (just like his equally long-lived science-fiction counterpart, Perry Rhodan).

One of the few official FBI pages in German states that Jerry Cotton indeed is a fictional agent and therefore it does not make sense to write fan-letters to him.

The film met general expectations by gaining a lot of new attention for Jerry Cotton and the classic series of novels of the same name.