Jean-Claude Pertuzé at Parrapean

The first Basque Comics Days (Parrapean / Premières journées de la BD basque) were held in Bilbao, last November.

Apart from Basque authors like Adur Larrea, Miquel Begoña, Iñaket, Zaldi REMO Ion Iñaki Artetxe, Asisko Urmeneta, Manel Skull, Pinturero, my friend Jean-Claude Pertuzé also attended, representing the Occitan comic writers and speaking about the comics in Occitan. 

Occitan is an official language in Catalonia, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken. Occitan's closest relative is Catalan. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran.

Across history, the terms Limousin (Lemosin), Languedocien (Lengadocian), Gascon, and later Provençal (Provençal, Provençau or Prouvençau) have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence.

To me, it is still a mystery why comics (I hate the word; much prefer the French bande dessinée, or if anything in English graphic novel) are so unpopular in the English speaking world. Apart from some superhero- war and "wild west" comics, very little seems to happen. Much unlike France, Italy and Spain (as regular readers of The Beret Project know).

And man, aren't there many berets featuring in all these south European comics!  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 to list a few...)