Parents looking to treat young readers with something delightful for Halloween that won’t rot their teeth, look no further than SPOOPS: The Little Spirits of Halloween. Written by prolific voice actor AJ LoCascio with illustrations by Laurie A Conley, the book follows a young girl named Holly Hollowell forbidden from enjoying Halloween festivities by her strict dentist parents. Luckily for Holly, magical sprites known as Spoops arrive to turn things around and teach her parents the true meaning of Halloween.
Though I already had the immense pleasure of interviewing LoCascio at San Diego Comic-Con only a few months ago, I couldn’t resist another opportunity to sit down and chat more about his debut children’s book from Top Shelf during New York Comic-Con.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Taimur Dar: Everyone has their own writing pace whether it’s someone like Stephen King who writes like a machine or George R.R. Martin who’s taken almost two decades to write The Winds of Winter. Even though Spoops is a children’s book, I’m sure it took you some time, so I’d love to hear about your writing process.
AJ LoCascio: It was slow. The idea of it took a few months because I was trying to figure out if it was just Spoops or do I introduce a character. Holly as the main character was developed whole cloth out of nothing. It took awhile to get there. Also, it was difficult for me to figure out why someone would be held back from celebrating Halloween that isn’t in a controversial or weird way like her parents being religious. Overall, it took about six years just to get it published. Every time I sent it to a new place I would change it in some way. It was this iterative process over the course of six years. It blows my mind when someone can just bang out a script in two weeks. This is something where I couldn’t say I had the luxury, but I had the time because of the pandemic. There was a time where one publisher said they would do it, but it had to be two hundred words. I tried but it was a terrible version. I was worried that they would accept that and that’s what would go through. At the time, I hadn’t published anything so I said, “I’ll do whatever.”
Taimur Dar: You mentioned other publishers wanting to shorten it. So I’m curious if there were any changes that other publishers wanted. For instance, did any publishers want you to make the main character a boy instead of a girl?
AJ LoCascio: I kept presenting the book and said, “This is the book. If you don’t like it, I don’t want to work with you.” I never got any pushback [about Holly]. There was one publisher that we were a day away from signing contracts and they said, “Can you get rid of the parents?” I was like, “No. How dare you. Absolutely not.” I was so mad that I went somewhere else. I said, “If that’s what you guys want, then you don’t understand the story.” It’s a universal story regardless of gender. It’s about wanting to express yourself and being prevented from that.
Taimur Dar: One of my favorite animated roles you’ve done has to be Thunk Crood from Dawn of the Croods. It was such a brilliant show, but one specific episode that stands out has to be “Disaster of Puppets” where you do a Robin Williams impression as Thunk’s ventriloquist skull puppet.
AJ LoCascio: That’s so funny! I knew you were going to say that. That’s my favorite episode. It’s funny because we recorded shortly before [Robin Williams] passed away and I was devastated. He was my favorite actor in the world. Then we had to go back and rerecord some of the lines and it was really hard. I was really luck that Brendan Hay let me do that. He asked, “What do you want to do for this standup comedian skull?” I said, “Can I do Robin Williams?” There was a previous episode where I was going to do a Robin Williams kind of character so they developed the character around that as the process went along. A little girl at one of the first conventions I did after the pandemic came up and gave me a skull of that character and I burst into tears. That is an episode that comes up a lot in a really cool way. You asked me a question, and I forgot what it was.
Taimur Dar: I was just remarking that that particular episode of Dawn of the Croods has a lot of overlap with Spoops in terms of themes.
AJ LoCascio: If I ever do a Spoops special, I would force Brendan Hay to do it. I’ve actually told him that a few times. There’s a deepness to children’s media that I don’t see often enough. You’re feeling feelings in a way that traditional media can’t quite do. With children’s media it can sneak in in a way that takes you off guard. Dawn of the Croods did that really well. I related to Thunk a lot. I didn’t think I would when I first started the show. His creativity and need to express himself when people think he’s dumb. They found a way to make him not be the dumb kid. He’s just different from everyone else. So many kids who are on the spectrum come up to me and go, “Thunk is me. I love Thunk.” It’s somebody who you look at and say, “What a goofball.” He has an intelligence that’s not a typical intelligence. He’s obsessed with things that other people aren’t obsessed with. He’s knowledgeable in ways that you don’t expect because he acts different. This is a whole tangent about Croods!
Taimur Dar: Everything you just described about Thunk relates to the main character Holly in Spoops!
AJ LoCascio: It’s an obsession. I was obsessed with Halloween as a kid. I loved making little figurines. My parents thought I was weird, not to the degree that the book did. I had to venture out on my own and explore that by myself.
Taimur Dar: The last few years have seen a number of notable actors branch into writing for comics. Having written a children’s book, do you have any future plans or desires to venture into the comics medium?
AJ LoCascio: The funny thing is, acting was a detour that I never expected to take. I didn’t think I would be acting in any capacity. My parents basically told me, “If you become an actor, you’ll be hungry your whole life.” They said it much worse than that. They were very discouraging of me doing that. I fell into it in a way that no one expected. Writing has always been the thing that I go back to when I was alone. I’ve been writing every single day for years. Okay, not every single day. I’m not Stephen King! It’s something that I go back to that’s my safe space. Making one children’s book was insanely difficult for me. Who knows what other projects will happen. But I’ve definitely been kicking around some comic ideas that are fairly nontraditional. I would love to do more Spoops and some other projects. It’s interesting when someone is an actor and the write. I think everyone thinks somebody got a ghost writer. That’s not the case with this. I’m not Jimmy Fallon! [Laughs]. I mean I’m not that famous where I can just hire someone.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
