This is a ballpoint pen sketch done by  Graveycat. The original submission containing this picture is here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15036192/

I was inspired to commission this because I had been recently reading some of the excellent weird fiction short stories by the contemporary of Lovecraft and Howard: Clark Ashton-Smith (Where necromancers and necromancy are a consistent theme), in particular 'The Double Shadow', where a necromancer's rod is mentioned in the context of a unit of measurement, which is why the character holds a rod here. I think 'The Dark Eidolon' is my favourite story of his though.

Google his name if you will, most of his stories, being out of copyright are available online.