Working on my graphic novel gives me the chance to work through the major themes of my creative life: history, memory, ruins, lost worlds, and most especially...deep time.

She's originally from the palace of Nineveh, the citadel of the last great king of the Assyrians, Ashurbanipal. Around the years 645-635 BCE, a master sculptor created a series of reliefs for the king that depicted him "hunting" lions. I put hunting in quotations because it is more like ritualized slaughter, akin to bullfighting. The animals naturally don't stand a chance of escape. Far from a hunt in the wild, the massacre begins with dozens of animals brought to the killing area in cages.

For the past several years I've spent most of my creative energies on a project I call Deep Time.