“Second and Worst Self,” by Melissa Orsano

In this four-panel strip, Melissa Orsano transforms Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde into “Second and Worst Self,” a modern-day reinterpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella. In Orsano’s retelling, the tale becomes an indictment not of scientific overreach, but of the contemporary beauty industry and its effects on young women’s sense of self.

Orsano uses consistent imagery and readily interpreted symbols — such as beauty magazines, a bottle (first intact, then broken), blacked-out features, and shadows — to tell a cohesive story. While the first two panels tell the familiar story of an insecure young woman who destroys herself striving for impossible beauty, the third panel complicates this narrative and connects the tale to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by incorporating text from the novella. In a repeated phrase, written in red ink and in a manner reminiscent of bathroom graffiti, partially obscured by the young woman, whose features are also now obscured, we are reminded of how Dr. Jekyll perceived his “self” as “lost.” By underlining a different word in each iteration of the sentence, Orsano constructs a new sentence, underscoring the act of transformation that is both the subject and the structure of her project. In the final frame, the transformation is complete. Orsano leaves no room for redemption of the lost self.

Read Orsano’s reflection here.