Buying Time

Why can't I hate this comic?

Buying Time uses Flash animations, which glitchy, resource-gobbling mess of a plug-in would normally put me off from the start. It's a slice of life comic, most of which I find rather dull. Its characters' codependence grates. It abuses nudity for cheap appeal. Worst of all, it's about gay guys dating, which given our modern milieu immediately rang my "snowflake social justice warrior" alarm. So why can't I hate it?

It's set in a hundreds-deep underground vertical city in which social stratification naturally flows downward floor by floor from proximity to the surface, in which all interpersonal contact has been commodified, with the panopticon automatically charging your account for anything from saying hello to a hug to a night of passion. Also, cyborgs. Then again, lots of similar webcomics from the past decade started with workable or even intriguing premises only to get hopelessly bogged down in pronoun policing and other petty narcissism.

It's not as though Buying Time ever veers off its focus on interpersonal claptrap. From start to finish, panel by panel, it inextricably concerns itself with a short, dumpy, shy gay musician / welder's attempts to woo his laddie love. Yet, while the characters themselves remain motivated by their personal concerns, the SciFi setting never fades either, limiting and defining, skewing and intruding into every interaction. I suppose this is what made me ultimately enjoy it. It remains true to Science Fiction's exploration of technological developments' effect on sentient life, from living in a postapocalyptic crater to something as seemingly mundane as SMS charges run amok. Its characters are shown acting both emotionally and rationally on a scale consistent with their social position as little fish in a mind-bending pond, adapting to their environment instead of merely navel-gazing.

All in all, surprisingly good job.