Finals #3

The penultimate chapter of Vertigo's four-part series arrives with "Book Three: Hell Week," and Jill Thompson's cover captures the exhausted, caffeine-fueled spirit of exam season perfectly — five young women crowded around a table buried under stacked textbooks, open notebooks, energy drinks, a French press, and scattered snacks, their expressions ranging from weary resignation to barely-contained stress. The central figure, chin resting in her hands and a cigarette smoldering nearby, looks like she's staring into the void the void has started staring back. Will Pfeifer and Thompson's mature-readers series continues to feel like one of Vertigo's more grounded, human offerings from 1999.