Tales of the Black Freighter

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Tales of the Black Freighter is a fictional pirate comic book series in the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic book limited series Watchmen. In Watchmen, two issues of the series are read by a black youth in New York City. The storyline told in the series, "Marooned", parallels the storyline of Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt's plot to avert disaster by using his dead comrades. The story was cut from the Zack Snyder film adapatation because of monetary and time constraints, and is subject for release as a separate entity on March 24, 2009, and as part of the director's cut of Watchmen four months later.

Contents

[edit] In the comic book

Watchmen features a story within a story in the form of Tales of the Black Freighter, a fictional comic book from which scenes appear in issues three, five, eight, nine, ten, and eleven. The fictional comic's story, "Marooned", is read by a black youth in New York City.[1] Moore and Gibbons conceived a pirate comic because they reasoned that since the characters of Watchmen experience superheroes in real life, "they probably wouldn't be at all interested in superhero comics."[2] Gibbons suggested a pirate theme, and Moore agreed in part because he is "a big [Berthold] Brecht fan": the Black Freighter alludes to the song "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny") from Brecht's Threepenny Opera.[3] Moore theorized that since superheroes existed, and existed as "objects of fear, loathing, and scorn, the main superheroes quickly fell out of popularity in comic books, as we suggest. Mainly, genres like horror, science fiction, and piracy, particularly piracy, became prominent--with EC riding the crest of the wave."[4] Moore felt that "the imagery of the whole pirate genre is so rich and dark that it provided a perfect counterpoint to the contemporary world of Watchmen".[4] The writer expanded upon the premise so that its presentation in the story would add subtext and allegory.[5] The supplemental article detailing the fictional history of Tales of the Black Freighter at the end of issue five credits real-life artist Joe Orlando as a major contributor to the series. Moore chose Orlando because he felt that if pirate stories were popular in the Watchmen universe that DC editor Julius Schwartz might have tried to lure the artist over to the company to draw a pirate comic book. Orlando contributed a drawing designed as if it were a page from the fake title to the supplemental piece.[4]

"Marooned" tells the story of a young mariner's journey to warn his home town of the coming of the Black Freighter after he survives the destruction of his own ship. According to Richard Reynolds, during the mariner's journey he is "forced by the urgency of his mission to shed one inhibition after another", including using the bodies of his dead shipmates as a make-shift raft and mistakenly killing innocent people as he makes his way to town. When he finally returns home, believing it to already be under the occupation of the ship's crew, he accidentally attacks his own wife in their darkened home. Afterward, he returns to the sea shore, where he finds the Black Freighter; he swims out to sea and climbs aboard the ship.[1] Moore has said that the story of The Black Freighter ends up specifically describing "the story of Adrian Veidt".[2] Reynolds states that just like Veidt, the protagonist of "Marooned" "hopes to stave off disaster by using the dead bodies of his former comrades as a means of reach his goal".[6] Moore has said that "Marooned" can also be used as a counterpoint to other parts of the story, such as Rorschach's capture and Dr. Manhattan's self-exile on Mars.[2]

[edit] Film adaptation

Tales of the Black Freighter will be adapted as a direct-to-video animated feature from Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation, which will be released on March 24, 2009.[7] It was originally included in the screenplay for the Watchmen film,[8] but was cut due to budget restrictions,[9] as the segment would have added $20 million to the budget, because Snyder wanted to film it in a stylized manner reminiscent of 300.[7] Snyder considered including the animated film in the final cut,[10] but the film was already approaching a three hour running time.[7] Gerard Butler, who starred in 300, voices the Captain in the film, having been promised a role in Watchmen that never materialized.[11] Jared Harris voices his deceased friend Ridley, whom the Captain hallucinates is talking to him. Snyder had Butler and Harris record their parts together.[12] The Tales of the Black Freighter DVD will also include Under the Hood, a documentary detailing the characters' backstories, named after the character Hollis Mason's (the first Nite Owl) memoirs.[7] The director's cut the extended version of Watchmen will include Tales of the Black Freighter when they are released on DVD.[7][13]

[edit] Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Reynolds, p. 110
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kavanagh, Barry. "The Alan Moore Interview: Watchmen, microcosms and details". Blather.net. October 17, 2000. Retrieved on October 14, 2008.
  3. ↑ "A Portal to Another Dimension". The Comics Journal. July 1987.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Stewart, Bhob. "Synchronicity and Symmetry". The Comics Journal. July 1987.
  5. ↑ Salisbury, p. 80–82
  6. ↑ Reynolds, p. 111
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Template:Cite news
  8. ↑ Template:Cite news
  9. ↑ Template:Cite news
  10. ↑ Template:Cite news
  11. ↑ Template:Cite news
  12. ↑ Template:Cite news
  13. ↑ Template:Cite news

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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