Granted, I'm only half way through Gemma Bovery, but I just wanted to throw out a question regarding Simmonds' unconventional use of point of view in telling the story. For a graphic novel, there seems to be a disproportionate amount of prose here. These sections the reader has no problem taking as originating from Joubert's point of view. He is telling Gemma's story based on information that he has gleaned from Charlie, Gemma's diaries, or his own first hand experience.
More troubling are the "comic" portions of the novel. Here the reader is presented with a wealth of information that Joubert could not have possibly known. Do these scenes arise from Joubert's imagination or a completely seperate consciousness? For example, on page 13 Joubert wonders what Charlie is remembering about the Christmas that followed his first meeting with Gemma. Then we get a full page of Charlie's converstion with his ex-wife Judi. Joubert later surmises that Charlie's relationship with Judi must be "civilized" (20), but this assumption belies the information that we're given in the comic portions of this page. Was Joubert merely being sarcastic or are the drawn panels conveying a truth to which he's not privy?
On a related note, later in the first half of the book, it appears as if Joubert is conducting the action of the narrartive (giving some insight into why he feels responsible for Gemma's death), as he commands Gemma to turn into Herve's driveway. It does, just as the skies thunder (48). Accorsing to her diary a few pages later, however, the thunder happens once Gemma is already inside Herve's house. This information would seem to rob Joubert of his role as "writer" of the narrative.
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Joubert is definitely an unreliable narrator throughout the text, and I like how Simmonds uses the comic art to poke holes in his story - a prime example is his outburst at Gemma's clothing on page 59 in the text and his leer at the bottom right which seems to contradict everything he expresses (he won't even admit he's in love with Gemma for the longest while). Martine plays this role as a foil to Joubert's narrative as well.
As I read through the pages, I felt very in sync with the mix of voices (the unreliable Joubert, Gemma's diary pages, and the "other" narrator) but I also like the theory expressed in class that this is Joubert's novel, and that he's just making up pieces out of whole cloth that he needs to fill in the holes.
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