Christopher Cool

Christopher Cool: TEEN Agent was a series of children's novels produced between 1967 and 1969 by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and published by Grosset & Dunlap. While the author is given as Jack Lancer, this is actually a pseudonym for a ghostwriter working for the Syndicate. In a 1989 interview published in Comics Interview #69, Jim Lawrence disclosed that he was the author of the series. Lawrence went on to write the long running newspaper strip adventures of James Bond.

The series was created to capitalize on the marketing potential of the spy genre of the era. Six novels were published. The series pitted Christopher and other agents of TEEN (Top-Secret Educational Espionage Network) against TOAD, an international criminal conspiracy.

TEEN agents

Other members of TEEN include Geronimo Johnson, an Apache Indian and Christopher's partner; Spice Carter, a student at Vassar College; Yummi Toyama, a Japanese-American student who attends "Berkeley" (it is never made clear whether this is intended to be Berkeley College (Yale University), Berkeley College, UC Berkeley, or even the Berklee College of Music; but, most likely the home of the Golden Bears), and Beauregard Tatum, an African-American student at Harvard.

The novels show the TEEN agents going to various foreign countries. As was typical of the spy genre of the time, they are outfitted with many spy gadgets.

The books

1. X Marks the Spy (1967)
2. Mission: Moonfire (1967)
3. Department of Danger (1967)
4. Ace of Shadows (1967)
5. Heads You Lose (1968)
6. Trial by Fury (1969)

Foreign editions

All six novels were published in France by Hachette between 1969 and 1973 under the title Chris Cool. They were also translated into Swedish, where Christopher was renamed "Ronnie Clark".