Editing Craig McCracken (section)

==Early life and education==
McCracken was born March 31, 1971,<ref name="base">{{Cite tweet |number=1774551258864452005 |user=TheCartoonBase |title=Happy 53rd Birthday to the talented Craig McCracken. What's your favorite series from the creator? |date=March 31, 2024}}</ref><ref name="wish">{{Cite tweet |number=1642036573821898753 |user=CrackMcCraigen |title=Thank you for all the happy birthday well wishes. Winding the evening down watching classic CN cartoons, like Chowder which was recently discovered by our daughter. Her mom, @Fyre_flye are so proud! |first=Craig |last=McCracken |author-link=Craig McCracken |access-date=June 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612062809/https://twitter.com/CrackMcCraigen/status/1642036573821898753 |archive-date=June 12, 2023}}</ref> in [[Charleroi, Pennsylvania]]. He began drawing at an early age. He attended [[California High School (Whittier, California)|California High School]] in [[Whittier, California]], and the [[California Institute of the Arts]] (CalArts), where he met his friend and future collaborator, [[Genndy Tartakovsky]]. During his first year, he created a series of short cartoons featuring a character named No Neck Joe, which were picked up by [[Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation|Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation]].<ref name="ppgdocumentary">{{Cite AV media |title=The Powerpuff Girls: Who, What, Where, How, Why... Who Cares? |year=2009}}</ref><ref name="lenburg" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=July 3, 2011 |title=Spike and Mike's&nbsp;– A Brief History |url=http://spikeandmike.com/sitepages/press.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703084323/http://spikeandmike.com/sitepages/press.php |archive-date=July 3, 2011 |access-date=January 14, 2014 |website=SpikeandMike.com}}</ref> While at CalArts, he also created a short entitled ''[[List of The Powerpuff Girls episodes#Whoopass Stew|Whoopass Stew!]]'', which would later become the basis for ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''.<ref name="ppgdocumentary" /><ref name="lenburg">{{Cite book |last=Lenburg |first=Jeff |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinanimate0000lenb |title=Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators |publisher=[[Hal Leonard]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-55783-671-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinanimate0000lenb/page/231 231] |quote=tartakovsky calarts. |access-date=May 31, 2011 |url-access=registration}}</ref>