Dirty Frank is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 appearing in the 2000 AD story Low Life, created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint

Henry Flint

Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...

.

He is a Wally Squad

Wally Squad

The Wally Squad is a fictional undercover police force in the Judge Dredd stories of 2000 AD. Wally Squad agents were undercover judges noted for their eccentricity and borderline lunacy; these characteristic behaviours were an inevitable consequence of working undercover in a world of complete...

 Judge

Judge (2000 AD)

Judge is a title held by several significant characters in the Judge Dredd series, which appears in the British comics 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine...

 in Mega-City One

Mega-City One

Mega-City One is a huge fictional city-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story...

  who has been undercover for so long that he appears to have lost his sanity, a fact somewhat at odds with his erudite speaking manner. He frequently refers to himself in the third person

Grammatical person

Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...

.

Publication history

Rob Williams has talked about the inspiration behind the character:
The character first appeared in 2000 AD #1389 (May 12, 2004), made an appearance in issue 1392, both drawn by Henry Flint

Henry Flint

Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...

 but did not feature in a story until "Rock and a Hard Place" drawn by Simon Coleby

Simon Coleby

Simon Coleby is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000 AD and Marvel Comics.-Biography:...

. Coleby got to flesh the character out and has also discussed some of the creative thinking:
Subsequently, the Dirty Frank became the main character in the Low Life series and, after Coleby left for to work on The Authority, D'Israeli

D'Israeli

Matt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli , is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" , for his writing, and "Harry V...

 became the main artist and has talked about his approach to the character:

Appearances

• Low Life:
  • Mega-City Undercover (160 pages, Rebellion
    Rebellion Developments
    Rebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
    
    , January 2008, ISBN 1905437528) collects:
    • "Paranoia" (with Henry Flint
      Henry Flint
      Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...
      
      , in 2000 AD #1387-1396, 2004)
    • "Rock and a Hard Place" (with Simon Coleby
      Simon Coleby
      Simon Coleby is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000 AD and Marvel Comics.-Biography:...
      
      , in 2000 AD #1425-1428, 2005)
    • "He's making a list..." (with Simon Coleby, in 2000 AD Prog 2006, 2005)
    • "Baby Talk" (with Simon Coleby, in 2000 AD #1521-1524, 2007)
  • "Creation" (with D'Israeli
    D'Israeli
    Matt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli , is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" , for his writing, and "Harry V...
    
    , in 2000 AD #1624-1631, 2009)
  • "Hostile Takeover" (with D'Israeli, in 2000 AD #1700-1709, 2010)