Feature-request: Ordering `git log --graph` based on *author's* timestamp

I use a fairly complex `git-log` command involving `--date-order` to get an overview of my repository's status; but unfortunately, `--date-order` seems to use the *committer* date, not the *author* date. That means that each time I bring my topic branches up to date by rebasing them onto the current upstream, I lose the helpful chronological ordering in my `git-log` of relative commits in my topic branches (that is, each branch becomes a single long line, because all of its commits got rebased to sequential and nearly-identical committer timestamps.)

After a bit of activity on [a Stack Overflow question][1], I've realized that this is basically impossible without 1. dumping `git log`'s `--graph` feature *entirely*, and writing a very complex custom system to order and re-graph commits, or 2. getting `git log` **itself** patched to support an `--author-order` flag or something.

(I've never posted here before, forgive me if this is the wrong way to go about this … the #git channel on Freenode pointed me here. :)

   [1]: <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8576503/how-can-i-make-git-log-order-based-on-authors-timestamp>