Restlessly I roam the desert sands of Egypt, searching of the original source of graphic novelling. I strive to increase my powers to unseen heights by reconnecting with the energy of the original artists.

The Tomb of Rekhmire (TT 100) in the Valley of the Nobles on the West Bank of Luxor astonishes with its endless walls covered in thousand of figures that clamor to tell their stories. Stories of ancient Egyptian life, from banquet etiquette to detailed instructions on wine making and tax collection. Each scene is so beautifully organized in clear, energetic, horizontal panels, with key figures emphasized by their larger scale. A “reader” can spend days in this “stone library” immersed in the action of its countless narratives and never feel lost or confused.

I’ve particularly fallen in love with the “stone books” from the area of the first Egyptian pyramid at Saqqara. What incredible attention to detail! A herdsman carries an anxious calf across the river and the mother cow reassures her baby by touching her tongue with hers.

What a great sense of humor! A young boy is caught stealing fruit by a baboon. The market security guard is in no hurry to stop his overzealous baboon from almost tearing the thief’s leg off. Their verbal exchange is recorded in front of their lips in concise hieroglyphic phrases. The baboon keeper coolly clarifies whose property the fruit really is, while the terrified boy yells “Help! …scare off this baboon!” With so much action and emotion expressed in the art, these brief “speech bubbles” are more than enough to advance the narrative

I will endeavor to use the wisdom revealed to me by these ancient masters in my own work and be expressive yet well organized, heart warming yet humorous, and give everything to every image I put on paper.

I better get it right or be destroyed by the Curse of the Masters as an unworthy acolyte of the Stone Library!