TREASURE ISLAND REIMAGINED Sets Sail With 1,200 Comic Panels and a Wild Live-Theater Experience

Jason Neulander’s Jane Hawkins and the Pirate’s Gold turns Robert Louis Stevenson’s legendary adventure into a graphic novel and live stage production packed with projected comics, live voices, Foley sound effects, and an original score.

Treasure Island has been adapted just about every way imaginable over the years, but playwright, director, producer, and writer Jason Neulander is taking Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic somewhere decidedly different. This September, TREASURE ISLAND REIMAGINED: JANE HAWKINS AND THE PIRATE’S GOLD will arrive as both an original graphic novel and a live theatrical production, bringing comics and performance together in one seriously ambitious adventure.

Neulander developed the project alongside artist Johnny Dombrowski (The Grail, Tales from the Crypt), colorist Lee Duhig (Daredevil), and letterer David Hutchison. Instead of simply retelling Stevenson’s story beat for beat, the creative team places Jane Hawkins at the center of the action, offering audiences a new hero while keeping the pirates, treasure, danger, and swashbuckling spirit that made the original tale endure for generations.

Set along the western shores of England in 1754, the story follows twelve-year-old Jane Hawkins, whose peaceful life at a seaside inn gets blown straight off course when a mysterious traveler arrives carrying a dangerous secret. From there, Jane is dragged into a world of buried treasure, mutiny, pirates, betrayal, and the kind of adventure where staying home suddenly sounds like a pretty solid life choice. Where things get especially interesting is how Neulander plans to bring that story from the printed page to the stage.

The theatrical version uses Neulander’s signature live-action graphic novel format, projecting more than 1,200 comic-book panels onto a screen while three performers provide the voices for every character and create sound effects live in front of the audience. Composer Sam Lipman provides an original score, while Buzz Moran handles sound design, turning the production into a combination of comic book, radio drama, movie screening, and live theater. Yeah, that’s a lot happening at once, and that’s kind of the point.

The inspiration behind Jane Hawkins came from somewhere much more personal. Neulander credits his daughter Scarlett with helping send the entire project in its eventual direction after he read Stevenson’s novel to her when she was nine.

“This project is hugely inspired by my daughter Scarlett. I read the original novel to her when she was nine, and when I was figuring out what adventure story I wanted to adapt as my next graphic novel and live show, at the age of 18, she said, ‘Duh! Dad, you have to do Treasure Island.’ And that was the trigger that turned Jim Hawkins, the hero of the original, into Jane Hawkins, the hero here.”

Neulander also praised Dombrowski’s ability to translate the images he imagined into artwork, joking that the artist seemingly “took a straw and sucked the images right out of my head.” For Neulander, the goal is not simply to introduce another adaptation of a famous title, but to reconnect audiences with a story many people recognize by name even if they have never actually experienced the original novel.

Dombrowski found himself tackling an equally unusual challenge. After nearly two decades working largely as a solo illustrator, the artist suddenly had to build visuals capable of functioning across both comics and theatrical performance.

“It has been so exciting to map out this story as it takes on its different shapes. In some ways, neither format is complete without the other. Some moments may work better on the printed page, while others work better when acted out on stage.”

That relationship between the two formats could wind up being the project’s biggest hook. Instead of treating the graphic novel as merchandise for the stage show, or the stage production as an advertisement for the book, the creative team has designed each version to offer something the other cannot completely replicate.

Treasure Island Reimagined: Jane Hawkins and the Pirate’s Gold is recommended for readers and audiences ages 12 and up and launches September 18, 2026. The graphic novel’s release coincides with the world premiere of the theatrical production at Austin’s historic State Theatre, located at 719 Congress Avenue. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the performance beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Following the Austin premiere, Treasure Island Reimagined is scheduled to hit more than 20 venues across the United States, with stops stretching from Anchorage all the way to New York.

Pirates on the page. Pirates on the stage. More than 1,200 comic panels flying across a screen while actors handle voices and sound effects live. If you’re going to dig up Treasure Island again, fam, you might as well bring a whole new map.

Readers can learn more about the project, preorder the graphic novel, watch footage from the production, explore the creative team, and find additional tour information at TreasureIslandReimagined.com.