Because his communist parents were convinced there was no bread to be earned in drawing, Baru first became a gym teacher before embarking on a career in comics. In his early thirties, he decided to devote his time to making comics, drawing subject matter from his teenage years in France and his travels in the 1960s. Soon, he proved his parents wrong by becoming a full-time, established comic artist, making his debut in the magazine Pilote in 1982.

For the magazine L'Écho des Savanes, he drew Cours Camarade, followed by Le Chemin de l'Amérique (with Jean-Marc Thévenet). In 1995, Baru reached a wider comics audience with Euro-manga L'Autoroute du Soleil, which won the Alph' Art award for the best...