Once again, I'm doing that dangerous thing where you reread your childhood favorites to see if they hold up to the test of time (previously, here). And because I vaguely remember loving John Bellairs's Johnny Dixon mysteries, I decided to give The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost another go. The verdict? John Bellairs is as capable of scaring the stuffing out of me in 2013 as he was in 1992.

And my mental image of Roderick Random Childermass has changed little since my tween years. So here you go, a sketch of the incomparable professor himself.