First off, Happy Canada day to my fellow leaves! Hope you're having a good summer, and having fun - I'd recommend for anyone who feels like it's too damn hot to skip out and spend a few hours in the woods, on a nature hike or doing a bit of camping. Just try to take it easy in general, and hope you enjoy the fireworks!
Now then... Ahahahahhahahhaha oh my God this is becoming an endemic fucking problem, pardon mon Francais, and I really need to learn to shut my mouth and not say anything. I'll just rip the bandage off and get straight to the point: I'm not going to continue Quint's Quest for the time being, and I'm also going to pause work on my Neocities site, since, it's only purpose really was to host the comic. This is gonna sound like a cop-out and that's probably because it is, but the comic isn't cancelled. I'd call it more... Put on ice for the foreseeable future. That is to say, I'm not completely ruling out the possibility I'll return to continue it later on, but I don't really see myself doing it. But, de-facto, though, you probably CAN consider it cancelled since there's honestly no practical difference.
I've got a multitude of reasons for my decision. The biggest one is that I honestly really don't have the same enthusiasm for Mega Man and Sprite comics in general that I did when I started this project. It was five years ago. I was honestly a completely different person five years ago compared to who I am now, and I guess I've kinda... Grown out of it. It was a bit of a phase, you could say. I still consider myself a Mega Man fan, because I still think the games are fun as hell and I still enjoy drawing the characters, but I'm not as absolutely crazy about Mega Man today as I was in 2017. Sprite comics, similarly, I've kind of lost the enthusiasm for. Which is ironic since I run a group dedicated to sprite comics, buuuuuut... Well, go there and you'll see, and I digress. Back in 2017 I was honestly on a huuuuge nostalgia bender, and I was inspired to make my own from comics like Bob and George (which, if you've read that you can probably see it has a HUGE influence on Quint's Quest) and 8-bit-theatre, which, I seriously consider one of the best web-comics ever made. You'll note I said "Web-comics" and not "Sprite-comics." It's THAT good.
Something I was aware of from day one though, is that I was getting into it about a decade too late. The sprite comic 'scene' has been dead since the 2000's ended, which I have joked about a few times in the comic itself. I never was trying to get 'internet famous' with Quint's Quest - because if I was I'd be a complete moron. I'm honestly still not trying to be famous, but I do have big plans and, this is going to sound like the worst betrayal for anyone who genuinely liked the comic, so if you hate me from now on then I'll just have to accept that, but I really just don't want to be spending time I could spend drawing or writing - or, hell, playing video games or doing anything IRL - on a project that I'm not super enthusiastic about, won't bear any fruit, and nobody but me really cared about anyways. The latter two, I could excuse since it was always a passion project, and let me put this out there. While I was making Quint's Quest, I had fun. It was enjoyable, and I would do it again if I were given the opportunity. Now that I'm not into it anymore, though, you'll have to forgive me for not wanting to continue. Despite the fact that I had fun with it, I was honestly getting seriously burnt out around the finale of Chapter 2, and I felt like the quality of my comics themselves suffered for it. I felt like it had become an obligation, rather than a thing I just did for fun, and summoning the effort to continue it became a more and more difficult endeavor.
Another reason is, well... I don't really NEED it anymore. Back in 2017 my self-esteem was honestly kind of a wreck, and even though I was interested in doing so I'd manage to convince myself that I just couldn't draw. If you couldn't tell I - with help from my friends - have since grown out of this defeatist mentality. The point being is that if I want to make a comic - and I do, believe me, even if I do still have a ways to go in terms of improving my illustration - I can just draw one, without having to faff about with sprites and the like, or be shackled to any existing intellectual property. If this sounds harsh, well... It's because it is, but it's the damn truth. I just don't really want to continue my sprite comic, and I don't need to, either. I guess since I've always liked to poke and make fun of the medium itself, this was about the only way the comic could end - slowly stalling as updates come less and less frequently until it's just gone one day out of the blue. The last punch line.
So, to my readers, sorry for hanging you out to dry. You have my sincere thanks for sticking with me these last five years and making them as enjoyable as they were. As for where I'm going next, and whether or not I'll even keep this Sniper Joe persona I've made, well... You'll just have to wait and see, but like I said earlier, I've got big plans. Thanks for reading!