Henri Bruneau attended the School of Fine Arts in Besançon, but his studies were cut short due to the outbreak of World War I. What followed was a career in the military. He was involved in the colonization of Morocco in the wake of Lyautey. In May 1931, he created the comic strip 'Zbib et Barnabé' in La Vigie Marocaine. The strip was intended to exalt the French-Moroccan companionship and gained such popularity that it reappeared in 1943 after the disembarkment of the American troops, and was continued until the 1950s.