http://tailsteak.netherweb.com/archive.php?num=32
The Sixth TV is a short online comic strip/comic book that was commissioned by some random guy on the Internet (Metz (http://www.deadjournal.com/~metz/) ) for some other random guy on the Internet* to draw.
Based almost entirely on Plato's story, "The Allegory of the Cave", the Sixth TV retells the ancient philosopher's tale in terms that modern readers might find slightly closer to home. Instead of being jacked into a massive supercomputer and used for batteries though, the prisoners have a slightly different sort of enslavement: FOX Television Network. Strange creatures in a dark room are all watching five television screens, and compete with each other for the best seats in the house by betting on what happens next in whatever show they're watching at the time.
But after a bet-it-all situation goes sour for one of these things, dooming him to what will probably be several weeks of watching nothing but PBS Pledge Drives until someone else makes and loses the same bet-it-all wager, he turns around and sees a glowing red dot in the distance. What with having nothing better to do, he goes to investigate this "Sixth TV", and embarks on a strange and wonderful journey.
With decent artwork and quite amusing dialogue, the Sixth TV is deep, well told, and short enough that you can read it right now and not worry about wasting time on frivolous things. The author offers it for sale burned on a CD if you would like a physical copy, although you can probably do that yourself if you're so inclined. But, in his own words:
Well, that's done now. You can all buy a CD copy of the completed story (including director's commentary and a translation of the ancient Greek text on which the story was based) for... let's say five bucks a pop. Drop me an email, we'll talk.
Contact information is on his website. Browse around, you'll find it.
* Mason Williams, otherwise known as Tailsteak, is also known as the author of the now completed webcomic 1/0.