I was initially a little overwhelmed by the amount of material on any single page in Gemma Bovery, unsure whether to focus on the text, the diary entry, the comics, the letters, etc., and even more unsure of how all of these elements worked together to form a cohesive story. Though the book is told from Joubert's point of view, the other visual elements provide the reader with a different perspective on the events he is describing. For instance, Gemma's diary entries are initially quite vague and only hint at what is going on in her life, though they do contain the occasional outburst about Judi or Charlie's children. Joubert even comments about how surprised he is that she does not go on at great length about her affair, much to his disappointment. However, after Herve ends things and she is in emotional distress her entries get more personal and reflexive, similar to the way they were after her affair with Patrick ended. Gemma's handwritten entries are a nice break from the excessive amount of text that Simmonds provides us.
Like the diary entries, the comics in Gemma Bovery also evolve throughout the course of the book. At the beginning they are merely drawings to accompany Joubert's narrative, with the occasional daydream or glimpse into Gemma's imagination. They are not especially comic in form, but more like sketches or illustrations. The majority of what would technically be classified as comics sequences typically involve Judi and tend to be the more humorous parts of the book. The pictures that accompany Gemma's affair with Herve could hardly be considered comics, for they are drawn in such a dreamy and romantic fashion (see pages 53 and 67 in particular). This lack of consistency made it difficult to know how to interpret the pictures, whether we should take them seriously or view them as comical interpretations that accompany the text.
Similar to Eddie Campbell, Posy Simmonds is extremely ambitious in her experimentations with the comics form. However, I would argue that she is not as successful as Campbell was. Though her story is much easier to follow, I often found that her lack of consistency in narrative voice and form came across as sloppy. I am unsure of what exactly she was trying to accomplish in terms of form, and wish she had chosen a better way to tell such an interesting story.
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I'm still struggling to decide whether or not I agree with you. At points, I could definitely see the setup getting out of Simmonds's control--for example, the diagram of Gemma's daydream on page 70. The page's arrangement doesn't work in any logical way as far as reading goes--one can't read left to right, and looking at it in columns still means you have to refer back to the drawing for the references to A, B, C, etc, while the narrative voice struggles between Joubert as character, Joubert as omniscient narrator, Gemma, and Herve.
However, despite the occasionally clumsy page, I don't know that I'd call Simmonds's work in GB sloppy. I think that she and Campbell were successful in different realms--with FOTA, I was so struck by the visuals. On the other hand, here, the writing seemed to work more frequently, despite the shifting tones and the constant threat of overwhelming the art in a "graphic" work such as this. Rather than "sloppy," I think I'll stick with "ambitious."
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