In 1979, Richard Bruning opened a
design firm in
Madison, Wisconsin, called Abraxas Studios. In the early 1980s, on staff at
Capital Comics, he was editor-in-chief and
art director for such publications as
Nexus,
Badger and
Whisper until the company ceased operation in 1984. After a year of
freelancing in
San Francisco, he moved to
New York City in 1985 to become DC Comics’
design director. For the next five years he supervised and/or contributed to the design of titles including
Watchmen and
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, as well as editing the DC-produced official sequel to the ITC TV series
The Prisoner,
Shattered Visage. He designed the branding of and logo design for DC's
Vertigo (comics) mature-readers imprint. He also oversaw the development and packaging of
graphic novels and DC's first
collected editions. In 2010, Bruning left DC to return to freelancing with a primary focus on cartooning. During 2016 he wrote and drew a twice-weekly online comic strip called "Bob! the Presidential Atheist" which dealt with politics, atheism and social issues. Starting in 2017, he became art director for Berger Books, an imprint of
Dark Horse Comics headed by his wife,
Karen Berger. Beginning in 2020 he became art director, designer & letterer for
Lapid Children's Books. ==Personal life==