One of my favorite things about Watchmen is that in the universe of that story, superheroes are real, so comic books never needed to write about them. Instead, pirate comics became the best sellers. Published by National Comics (the original name for DC Comics in our universe) and written by Max Shea and artists Joe Orlando and Walt Feinberg (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in our world), Tales of the Black Freighter tells the stories of sailors who are damned by their encounters with the phantom pirate ship.

Named from a lyric from the song “Pirate Jenny” in The Threepenny Opera, the Black Freighter collects souls of men who become the crew of its blood stained decks, call at the command of a mysterious and demonic captain. At the time of its publishing in this universe, it was never seen as commercially successful as the EC Comics Piracy and Buccaneers, but as Shea developed in his writing style, his stories soon became dark and moralistic.

This cartoon adapts the story “Marooned,” in which a castaway’s increasingly desperate attempts to return home in time to warn them of the Black Freighter only lead to him being taken by it. As he rides a raft made of his dead crewmates, he fights sharks and kills numerous people, only to realize that he has murdered the very people he wanted to save.

Gerald Butler, the star of Snyder’s 300, is the voice of the man in this. Directed by Daniel DelPurgatorio and Mike Smith and written by Alex Tse and Snyder, it was intended to be part of the Watchmen movie. It’s added in the longer cuts.

Why is this story so important? Because it’s the real story of Adrian Veidt, the villain behind everything. He is using the bodies of his former associates to get closer to the end of his world and fix things, even if he must go insane and compromise his morals.