Time Capsule: CompleatBellairs at 25

Bellairs fandom hit the Internet 25 years ago today when the Compleat Bellairs debuted. The site was the first major online presence to celebrate John Bellairs and Brad Strickland. For eight years this unique and artistic site reigned supreme with character biographies; book synopses detailing the good, the bad, and the ugly; quotes, reviews, inspired art, and other features for fans.

It doesn't take a tabergan to see time fly.

• More: Interview: Jonathan Abucejo (March 2001)

Time Capsule: January 20, 1996

Let’s say you’re an tech-savvy, undergraduate education major and you want to contribute something new and unique to the World Wide Web thing all the kids are talking about. How does one go about that? 

First, boot-up the dial-up modem. Next, use Netscape Navigator or American Online ("Welcome!") to search the 100,000-or-so existing pages to figure out whether someone else has anything on that topic. If you find something interesting, make sure your mouse trackball is clean so you can roll the pointer into place and click the image that appears on your 640x480 resolution monitor.

It seems an archaic ritual but that’s how it was 20 years ago when the CompleatBellairs first went online and helped bring the books of John Bellairs and Brad Strickland into the digital age.

Time Capsule: September 1, 1993

September 1, 1993: We’re pleased to be continuing the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Brad Strickland’s association with John Bellairs’ characters and in particular the two decades since The Vengeance of the Witch-finder was published.

Time Capsule: April 5, 1993

April 5, 1993: We’re pleased to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Ghost in the Mirror this month - not just the celebrated return of Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger but the debut of Brad Strickland’s association with the series, too.

Time Capsule: 1991

From the March 9, 1991 edition of the Haverhill Gazette:

Time Capsule: 1997

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since we first heard the strange tale of Jarmyn Thanatos and his desire to live forever. Thanatos was the spellbinder as seen in The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder, Brad Strickland’s second “solo” book in the Johnny Dixon series, where Johnny’s friend Fergie finds the last book in the library and sets forth a strange chain of events revealing charmin’ Jarmyn's (as we've taken to calling him) sinister secret for getting younger as the decades pass.

Time Capsule: 1992

August, 1992: 14 years ago this August, John's last book was published a year after his untimely death. The Mansion in the Mist, with a working title of The Mansion at the End of the World, is the fourth, and as of this writing, the final book in the Anthony Monday series.

Anthony, Miss Eells and her brother, Emerson, endure a jolting ride in an old wooden chest and find a sinister world whose inhabitants are...planning...heh...we won't spoil it for you. Let's just say it involves a guy named Marius Ambrose and some of his friends.