Since I'm just getting settled into my college routine for the next semester, no comic today. Instead, I'll regale you with some ancient Fantasy Qwest history to go with the conceptual art you see above.

Long before anyone had ever heard of "8-Bit Theater", Fantasy Qwest began as an RPG parody (of Final Fantasy, mainly) cooked up by Authorman and myself. It followed the adventures of the egotistical protagonist Rayne and his sidekick Ocho in a bizarre and nonsensical parody. The first drafts of the character that would later become Vic were concieved in this era.

Around the time of the release of Final Fantasy 9, Vic was moved to sidekick status alongside the generic hero called Hiro, in the new rendition of Fantasy Qwest. The intent was in mockery of that game's own black mage character. Incidentally, the game project was originally called "Futile Fantasy", but it was changed to the current moniker after seeing how many people had already used the previous title online. The original renditions of Hiro and Vic were very different from the ones you see in the comic today (For instance, Hiro was originally a "silent protagonist", but we decided later it would be much funnier if he talked). The original Vic, on the other hand, was a bit more sarcastic and subtle than his more violent, foul-mouthed evolution in the comic. During this era, the first copies of the major characters shown so far in the comic (the villain, the Princess, and Kit) were also created.

After a few attempts at RPG Maker 2000 projects which never really got off the ground, Fantasy Qwest finally saw light in the webcomic form you view today. Of course, by then a certain popular webcomic featuring Final Fantasy characters had spread through the internet like a bad case of syphilis. Thus, Vic changed from his original form to the cross between Orko and a Jawa that you see today, because of his prior resemblance to a certain character from said comic. Also, in the original RPG concept, he used a broom as a weapon for the humor value, an idea which has not made it into the comic. The concept drawing on the right was from another dropped idea dealing with class changes. Instead, the art formed the base for the "Pimpdaddy" Vic sprite seen in one of the early episodes (Episode 22, to be exact).

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into Fantasy Qwest's past. We'll be back with an exciting new comic on Thursday. Until then...

This is the Creator. End transmission.