Comics Alternative Interviews: Suzy Hopkins and Hallie Bateman

Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:02:34 - Welcoming Kristin LaLonde! 00:06:25 - Setup of interview 00:08:47 - Interview with Suzy Hopkins and Hallie Bateman 01:06:36 - Wrap up 01:09:18 - Contact us On this episode of The Comics Alternative's interview series, Derek welcomes Kristin LaLonde. She is one of the cohost of The Secret Stackspodcast, and she has a particular interest in graphic medicine and comics that deal with health and end-of-life issues. Together, the two of them talk with Suzy Hopkins and Hallie Bateman, the writer and illustrator of What to Do When I'm Gone: A Mother's Wisdom to Her Daughter(Bloomsbury Publishing). This is a book that the mother-daughter team worked on together, addressing the eventual death of Suzy and what advice she might want to give to Hallie before passing on. They talk with Kristin and Derek about the origins of this idea, the long incubation period, its evolution as a text from a personal project to something for a much broader audience, and how both mother and daughter collaborated on a subject matter that, while somber and ominous, was nonetheless was a necessary life-affirming exercise.