Baldo

Baldo is a newspaper comic written by Hector Cantu and drawn by Carlos Castellanos.

The comic centers around the title character, Baldo Bermudez, a Hispanic teenager who works at an auto parts store and dreams of one day owning a lowrider. Other main characters include Baldo's little sister Gracie, Baldo's widower father Sergio, Baldo's great-aunt Tia Carmen, and Baldo's best friend and Sidekick Cruz.

The comic is kind of like a Latino version of Zits, with maybe a little bit of FoxTrot thrown in for good measure.

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Tropes used in Baldo include:

• Aborted Arc: In April 2009, Baldo was promoted to assistant manager at Auto Y Rod. This was never mentioned again.
• Animated Adaptation: There was a Baldo cartoon made for Spanish-language television.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Gracie.
• Art Shift: On occasion, the style changes from cartoony to photorealistic (sometimes even within the same strip), especially during a mood change. However, it always eventually changes back to cartoony.
  • One art shift featured a professional comic book artist illustrating one of Baldo's superhero fantasies.
• Author Tract: The storylines about illegal immigration, lottery scams, and others.
• Balloonacy: Sergio tried this in his youth. The balloons raised him and his lawnchair just as high as his first-story window, which the wind immediately smacked him into, breaking it and knocking him off the chair and into a thorny rosebush.
• Brother Chuck: Sylvia Sanchez, who was Baldo's crush (and potential love interest) until he hooked up with Smiley. Sylvia hasn't been heard from since, even AFTER Baldo broke up with Smiley.
  • Arguably, Smiley herself fits this trope as well: she hasn't been seen or mentioned since 2006.
• Comic Book Time: Lampshaded in one strip.
• Cool Old Lady: Tia Carmen, on occasion.
• Crossover: With Yenny (see below).
• Dead Person Conversation: Tia Carmen has had a few of these with her dead husband.
• Everything Sounds Sexier In Spanish: Played straight here, though they broke up the following week.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: When Baldo is introduced to his new co-worker Beatriz.

Mr. Rod: Baldo, this is Beatriz. She's new here so you'll be training her. Baldo: Training her to love me. ...Sorry, that was supposed to be a thought bubble.

• Girl Next Door: Smiley, literally. And Baldo's co-worker Beatriz (though not literally).
• Gratuitous Spanish: Sergio and Carmen use Spanish phrases frequently; and to a lesser extent, Baldo and Gracie do as well.
  • As did Smiley, who watched Spanish television and picked up the language.

Smiley: So what are you doing sábado? Anything gigante?

• Guest Strip: Dave Alvarez of Yenny guest-drew a Sunday comic, then contributed artwork for the rest of the week, leading to a canon Crossover between Yenny and Baldo.
  • Lela Lee of Angry Little Girls also drew a few strips, under the pretext that she was a girl Gracie met on the playground who showed her her drawings.
• High School
• Missing Mom: Sergio's wife, Rosa, who died in a car accident.
• Mood Whiplash: Jumping from light humor to a photorealistic Tia Carmen talking to a mustachioed stranger about Rosa's car accident, then back to light humor.
  • Smiley's Evil Makeover also fits. The first two strips in the arc are set up to look like she and Baldo genuinely miss each other, followed, two days later, with her becoming popular and stuck-up.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Baldo (short for Baldomero), Gracie (short for Graciela), Cruz, and Smiley.
• Peek a Bogey Man: El Cucuy, the family bogeyman.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: Smiley.
• Shout-Out: To Gus Arriola's comic strip Gordo, by way of Tia Carmen flashing back to a meeting with the titular character of said comic.
• Sidekick: Cruz.
• The Slacker: Joey and Billy.
• Straw Feminist: Gracie, sometimes.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Beatriz, who seems to have taken the place of both Sylvia and Smiley.
• Will They or Won't They?: They've been dragging out Beatriz and Baldo since about 2005 or so. Justified since it's not the focus of the strip (and Beatriz had a boyfriend for a few years), but sometimes the comic can go a year between strips that show that Baldo really likes Beatriz, or vice versa.
• You Fail Logic Forever: The Recurring Character Billy, who is subconsciously predjudicial, and thinks that Hispanic people are discriminating against him.
• Your Favorite: Tia Carmen tells Baldo she made his favorite potatoes.