Solomon Enos is adapting both Stevenson’s ‘The Bottle Imp’ and ‘Isle of Voices’ to emphasise Polynesian cultural heritage and traditions, in line with his vision to produce modern fantasy visual materials that celebrate Hawaiian identity. In his reworking of both stories, Enos elevates the role of the wahine women depicted in the original tales, with the magical potential of Lehua of ‘Isle of Voices’ and the practical wisdom, knowledge and courage of Kokua ‘The Bottle Imp’ repositioned at the centre of each narrative.

Experimenting with colour, costume, place and story-structure, Enos’s creative adaptations both update these stories for contemporary youth audiences in the Pacific and in Scotland, and honour Stevenson’s connection to the communities he was writing about in these stories. From his extensive travels across the many sites of this project, Enos has drawn on diverse the material cultures of Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti and the UK to accurately depict clothing, money and other objects (such as bottles, most notably in the case of ‘The Bottle Imp’) in his graphic adaptations.