Smith & Wesson
Pierre Tranchard, who often signs with Pica, was born in Saint-Étienne. A graduated architect, he made his comics debut in the "Carte Blanche" section of the magazine Spirou in 1974. Two years later, he was present in Pistil with 'Dorothée' (script by Roha) and 'L'Agence Duplumeau contre Salvador Picassax' (script by Maric), and in Trio with 'Ceux de la forêt'. He became a regular artist with the press agency Fleurus, illustrating strips with 'Diogène', as well as several short stories, for Triolo and Djin.
Marine
His longtime collaboration with François Corteggiani started in 1979, when they created 'Chafouin et Baluchon' for Djin and later for Gomme. The duo began their charming children's series about the little girl 'Marine' in Pif Gadget 1979. It was continued until 1982 and then, after a short break, published in Le Journal de Mickey between 1984 and 1989 and then finally in Hello Bédé until 1992.
L'École Abracadabra
In 1980, Pica and Corteggiani began the humorous adventure series 'Bastos et Zakousky', that was published in Djin, Circus, Gomme and Triolo, and collected in books by Glénat between 1981 and 1986. Also for Pif, they came up with the humorous western 'Smith et Weston', that was published in books by Hachette in 1987 and 1988 and then by Soleil in 1995. Tranchand and Corteggiani published their series 'L'École Abracadabra' in Le Journal de Mickey since 1987 throughout the 1990s. In 1998 they also created 'Monster Motel' for the French Disney magazine. Tranchand and Corteggiani are also the creators of 'Les Gum's', a promotional comic for Cafétaria Casino in the early 1990s.
Croco et Fastefoude
Tranchand teamed up with writer Gilbert Bouchard in the 1990s, with whom he made the irregular published gag series 'Poules à Lier' in Spirou between 1995 and 1999, as well as the series 'Crocro et Fastefoude' for Casterman between 1999 and 2002 and 'Les Babyfoots' for Bamboo in 2002. Another notable series by Pica is 'Les Profs', which he makes with Erroc for Le Journal de Mickey since 1998. The series is published in book format by Bamboo since 2000. Since 2011, Mauricet participates in the artwork.
Tranchand also contributed to 'Les Enquêtes de leurs Amis' (Soleil, 1989), a collective tribute album to Maurice Tillieux' hero detective 'Gil Jourdan'.
Les Profs