Richard Bruning was born on February 7, 1953. In 1979 he opened a design firm in Madison, Wisconsin called Abraxas Studios. In the early 1980s, he was a key part of Capital Comics' staff, acting as Editor-In-Chief and Art Director over such publications as Nexus, The Badger and Whisper until they 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 the landmark series' Watchmen (by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) and The Dark Knight Returns (by Frank Miller), as well as editing the DC-produced official sequel to the ITC TV series The Prisoner, Shattered Visage (by Dean Motter and Mark Askwith).

In 1990, he left DC to form Brainstorm Unlimited, Inc. a freelance graphic design and corporate communications firm in New York. The company’s client list included HBO, Fine Line Films, Xerox, Children’s Television Workshop and others. He also wrote the Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip for King Features. Of particular note was his branding of and logo design for the new Vertigo Comics mature readers comics line for DC Comics, and overseeing "the development and packaging of the upscale graphic novel and prestige format as well as the development of DC's first collected editions".

He returned to DC full-time in 1996 as VP-Creative Director responsible for overseeing the creative efforts of the entire company. He was promoted to Senior Vice-President in 2002/2003. He was instrumental in the creation of DC Comics’ new company logo in 2005.

Bruning is married to fellow-DC employee Karen Berger.

Writing

Bruning has also written comics, as well as acting in a behind-the-scenes role, writing in 1990 the Prestige format miniseries Adam Strange: The Man of Two Worlds, which revived the titular classic DC Sci-Fi character. The three issues were illustrated by the brothers Kubert, Andy (pencils) and Adam (colors). He also wrote and lettered (with versatile fellow-editor, and all-round artist Mark Chiarello pencilling and coloring) the Eisner-nominated short story "Electric China Death" for Gangland #4.

As writer

• "A Sense of Obligation" (with Kevin Nowlan) in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual 3, DC Comics, 1987)
• Adam Strange: The Man of Two Worlds #1-3 (with Andy and Adam Kubert, DC Comics, March—May 1990)
• "Reflections Of A Deep Fantasy" (with Steve Bove, in Secret Origins #50, DC Comics, August 1990)
• "Electric China Death" (with Mark Chiarello) in Gangland #4, Vertigo, September 1998)
• "Rocket-Man" (with Jim Lee, in Flinch #1, Vertigo, June 1999)