Hey! Great shading,etc! One thing I can add about the animation, in my opinion,  is that the run animation could use some stride. I mean during running, the standing pose with both legs even with feet flat on the ground doesn't happen. I have a short example using 3 unique frames flipped horizontally to equal 6 frames(3 for each stride)

later!

I hope you don't mind, I did a quick edit 

not happy at all hmmm, well, it looks fine! Maybe you mean that you have imagined something different than what you actually drew/pixelled...

some mini-crits in my opinion, could include the round elbow, as mentioned, and also the lighting on the jaclket seems too simplified, and the location of the sword behind his head could be adjusted to make a stronger silhouette, I originally thought that he was wearing a viking hat with horns on the side....

As a portfolio piece, i only have one concern and that is that this looks appropriately dated. i know this is what you are going for, but games that succeed in the market typically dont benefit from looking old, so a person looking to make a new game might shy away from a portfolio full of fantastic-but-oldschool pixelwork.

well said, I like to think that an employer also doesn't normally want to re-invent the wheel, so just show 'em you can do recent game art good....
mind you, you're swashbucklin' game looks really fun like Sunset Riders or something, try to find an artist run studio...

Ha, lost all will, it sounds pretty good... to lose the will to pixel, imagine the free time and no mouse hand fatigue and ey strain....
seriously though, I could add on comment about your post, the little running guy could use a bit of work on his feet, it seems they go back and forth instead fo walking... just a thought
later!