In Spring 1998, Hector Cantu called up Carlos Castellanos and launched Baldo with these words:

"HEY CARLOS, LET'S DO A
NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIP!"

It was a simple premise: The adventures of a teenage boy and his family.

"There were hardly any second thoughts on what the strip would be about," Hector says. Since the beginning, it's been called "Baldo" and it's always included the characters known as Gracie, Dad and Tia Carmen.

A month's worth of daily strips were sent to the major newspaper syndicates. The first batch was well-received and Hector and Carlos were encouraged by syndicate editors to produce a second round of strips.

By Summer 1999, a contract was signed and in April 2000, "two years after that initial phone call," Baldo was launched nationwide by Universal Press Syndicate. It's the company's first comic strip that features Latino characters and themes.