Regino Bernad was born in Saragosse, Spain, but moved to France in 1924, and became a French citizen in 1957. At first, he worked in the advertising field, but eventually, in 1931, he became an illustrator for the satirical press. His work appeared in among others Fantasio, La Vie parisienne, le Rire, Le Frou-Frou and Le Fourire. After the War, he joined the publisher Arthème Fayard, for whom he produced a large amount of cover illustrations, most notably for the 'Saint' novels that appeared between 1947 and 1966. From 1955, he also drew 'The Saint' in Fayard's le Saint Détective Magazine.
In 1951, he created his first comic for the France-Soir newspaper. The daily 'Balaoo' strip was an adaptation of a novel by Gaston Leroux. He also contributed to the "vertical" strips 'Le Crime ne Paie Pas' and 'La Conquête du Ciel' by Paul Gordeaux. In 1953, Bernad started working on the daily 'Chéri-Bibi' comic, again for France-Soir. This series was again an adaptation of a novel by Leroux. Bernad drew the strip for fifteen years, although one story was drawn by Eugenio Foz in 1954. The scenarios of the 'Cheri-Bibi' series were written by Gaston Leroux' son, G.A. Leroux. One album collection was published by Dargaud in 1968: 'Chéri-Bibi Bagarre'. Bernad then cancelled his artistic activities and spent his final years working as a guard in a football stadion.
In the original version of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's 'Asterix' story 'Asterix and Cleopatra' (1963) the villain is seen reading a newspaper, with the comics section facing the reader. Two of the series are ancient Egyptian parodies of popular newspaper comics at the time, including 'Chéri'-Bibis' and 'Isis de mon coeur' ('The Heart of Isis', a nod to Stan Drake's 'The Heart of Juliet Jones'.).
