Hector David Cantú (born September 16, 1961)Texas Births, 1926–1995
Hector David Cantú, Birth Date: 1961-09-16
/ref> is an American writer, editor, and

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

creator, best known for the

Latino-American Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spaniards, Spanish and/or Latin Americans, Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include a ...

strip '' Baldo''.

Biography

Early life and career

Cantú created his first cartoon at age 12 for a community newspaper in

Crystal City, Texas Crystal City is a city in and the county seat of Zavala County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,354 at the 2020 census. It was settled as a farming and ranching community and was a major railroad stop being from San Antonio. Spinach ...

, owned by his brother, inspired by

Mad magazine Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to: Geography * Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia * Mád, a village in Hungary * Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code * Mad River (disambiguation), several r ...

cartoonists

Sergio Aragonés Sergio Aragonés Domenech ( , ; born September 6, 1937) is a Spanish/Mexican cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to '' Mad'' magazine and creating the comic book ''Groo the Wanderer''. Among his peers and fans, Aragonés is w ...

and

Antonio Prohías Antonio Prohías (January 17, 1921 – February 24, 1998) was a Cuban-American cartoonist. He was the creator of the satirical comic strip ''Spy vs. Spy'', which he illustrated for '' Mad'' magazine from 1961 to 1987. Biography In 1946, Proh� ...

.Ashraf, Arooj, . "Baldo: Comic strip entertains and educates, combating racial stereotypes"
''

La Prensa ''La Prensa'' ("The Press") is a frequently used name for newspapers in the Spanish-speaking world. It may refer to: Argentina * ''La Prensa'' (Buenos Aires) * , a current publication of Caleta Olivia, Santa Cruz Bolivia * ''La Prensa'' (La Paz ...

'' (Ohio & Michigan), October 2008 He attended Skyline High School in Dallas, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he was an assistant managing editor at ''

The Daily Texan ''The Daily Texan'' is the student newspaper of University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spri ...

''. He later worked as a reporter and editor at the ''San Antonio Light,'' the ''Dallas Times Herald,'' and ''The Dallas Morning News.'' He was

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...

of ''Hispanic Business'' magazine in Santa Barbara,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He has written freelance for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

Magazine'', ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', and ''

D Magazine ''D Magazine'' is a monthly magazine covering Dallas–Fort Worth. It is headquartered in Downtown Dallas. ''D Magazine'' covers a range of topics including politics, business, food, fashion and lifestyle in the city of Dallas. The first iss ...

''. Cantú is among the 21 Latino comic book and comic strip authors and artists featured in comic historian

Frederick Luis Aldama Frederick Luis Aldama is an American academic, known for this work as the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, founder and director of the Latinx Pop Lab, and Affiliate Faculty in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas, Austi ...

's 2009 book ''Your Brain on Latino Comics''.

''Baldo''

In 1998, Cantú and artist

Carlos Castellanos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewher ...

BaldoComics.com: "Los Creators"
/ref> teamed to create the

'' Baldo'', about a 15-year-old Latino-American teenager, Baldomero Bermudez, nickname Baldo, living with his 8-year-old sister Gracie; their father, Sergio; and their aunt, Tia Carmen.

Universal Press Syndicate Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Eb ...

(now Andrews McMeel Syndication) contracted for the strip, and in April 2000 it launched in newspapers, which number nearly 200 as of late 2008. It ranked among Universal Press Syndicate's 5 most successful launches. Cantú in 2007 said he and Castellanos were prompted to create ''Baldo'' Two ''Baldo'' compilation books, ''The Lower You Ride, The Cooler You Are'' and ''Night Of The Bilingual Telemarketers'', have been published by

Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (formerly Andrews, McMeel and Parker (1975–1986) and Andrews and McMeel (1986–1997)) is a company that publishes books, calendars, and related toys. It is a part of Andrews McMeel Universal (which comprises AM ...

. The Spanish-language

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

optioned the strip for an

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

Later career

As of 2007, Cantú is editor and publisher of ''The Intelligent Collector'' magazine at

Heritage Auctions Heritage Auctions is an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1976, Heritage is an auctioneer of numismatic collections, comics, fine art, books, luxury accessories, real estate, and memorabilia from film, mu ...

. He is co-editor of the book ''Collectible Movie Posters'' published by

Whitman Publishing Whitman Publishing is an American book publishing company which started as a subsidiary of the Western Printing & Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. In about 1915, Western began printing and binding a line of juvenile books for the Hammi ...

. He is founding chair of Texas Cartoonists, a regional chapter of the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

References

External links

"Labor of Laughter,"
The (Eugene, OR) Register-Guard, March 31, 2018
"For Comic Strip Authors In The Trump Era, 'No Art Should Live In A Vacuum'"
National Public Radio, January 21, 2018

WashingtonPost.com ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nat ...

Webchat, July 12, 2002
"'Baldo' Creators Draw Attention to National Literacy Day"

press release A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...

, June 18, 2004
Hooten, Jeffery D. "'Baldo' writer addresses his work at Texas Union"
''

'' (

), September 12, 2007; updated January 9, 2009
Astor, Dave. "'Baldo' Strip Includes What 'The War' Series Mostly Omits"
''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

'', September 24, 2007, via DefendTheHonor.org
Pounder, Lori. "Creating 'Baldo': Comic strip author Hector Cantú spoke at Summit Middle School Friday"
''

Summit Daily News Ogden Newspapers Inc. is a Wheeling, West Virginia based publisher of daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, and shoppers guides. The company was founded by H.C. Ogden in 1890, and is currently run by the family of his gra ...

'' (

Summit County, Colorado Summit County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,055. The county seat and largest town is Breckenridge. Summit County comprises the Breckenridge, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. ...

), January 18, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cantu, Hector American comics writers Writers from Texas 1961 births Living people People from Weslaco, Texas