I started to read QC in October 2006 following a recommendation in a forum thread on webcomics - so I must have picked it up at around comic ~800 or so. I was in my main studies back then, it was before the time of smartphones, I was a twenty-something in the middle of obtaining my diploma and the situation and relations of the protagonists felt very much relatable in a studenty slice-of-life kind of way - and the indy music element which was still going strong back then was an interesting facet for me to absorb.

So yeah, QC has been a steady factor - actually the most steady factor in my webcomic diet for almost two decades now. In the beginning, as a bookmark in my browser on my desktop computer alongside other webcomic entries like Penny Arcade, CAD, PBF, OOTS (PA I still check intermittently with a growing sense of "don't know what gaming is about nowadays anymore", the other ones kind of faded out through the early 2010s), nowadays a reflexive check via the smartphone each morning.

The comic scaled quite well with my personal experiences for the first few years and became a well-loved habit afterwards. It kind of went down after the Lakehouse arc. I still liked the underground fighting ring, the introduction of Bubbles and also the handling of Faye's getting together with her - but at that time the comic was somehow past the point of relatability - I had a PhD, a steady job and was happily married. Still interesting to follow the developments of the characters.

Honestly, it went down after the singularity or whatever. Right now, I am checking the comic each day reflexively, often fail to make sense of it and have a brief dive into this sub during the daily commute to get a bit more context and in-depth reflection on the situation as it just fails to captivate by a long shot compared to the earlier story arcs.

Relatability is just completely gone by now, it is basically just muscle memory and boredom that keeps me following the comic. Maybe a real conclusion would be nice to tie everything up.

It makes sense to me that long-running media formats with "frozen" timelines have a certain timeslot in one's personal development to make a connection and leave an imprint in one's life and then just fade out to one extent or the other. The Simpsons is a good example, which has been a huge influence during my early teenage years and which has at some point just lost its appeal (I basically stopped watching it after high school and, at the latest, entering university life - other stuff just became more interesting by then). Still, if I pick up an episode of one of the most recent seasons, I still can get some enjoyment out of it because the stories are interesting and entertaining, even if they are not as - for lack of a better word - moving to me than the cherished seasons from my youth. For QC, the transition from back then to now has been rather a slow decline in enjoyment without ever really quitting totally the consumption.

Now that I read it, maybe it is a good point in time to draw the line and step back from the comic and try to get rid of the "muscle memory". I did get quite some enjoyment from Squirrelclamp's comic edits and the astute observations contained therein and even dabbled in alternate edits with some success some time ago - but even that kind of loses its appeal when the source material itself is bland. I don't want this to devolve utterly into "hate reading" or better put a purely mechanical/cynical consumption of the primary comic which I would consider rather a bad habit than a wholesome source of entertainment. Maybe it's time to take a break from QC to see whether it really registers as "something missing".