Editing Joe Matt (section)

==Early life==
Joe Matt was born and raised in [[Lansdale, Pennsylvania]], a middle-class suburb of [[Philadelphia]]. He had three siblings. His mother was a housewife. His father held a variety of different jobs, including owner of a carpet store and a longtime stint working for [[Amtrak]]; in Matt's words, "he seemed to drift from job to job a lot." Matt credited his childhood lack of money with forming his later habit of cheapness. He attended Catholic school until 12th grade.<ref name="TCJ183">{{cite magazine |last=Brayshaw |first=Christopher |date=January 1996 |title=Joe Matt |url=https://www.tcj.com/the-joe-matt-interview/ |magazine=[[The Comics Journal]] |volume= |issue=183 |location= |publisher= |access-date= 2023-09-19 |page=47-75}}</ref> 

Matt developed drawing skills by age five, and later said he considered himself an artist all his life. His mother encouraged him  in this pursuit, having herself attended the [[Philadelphia College of Art]] before dropping out to raise her family. His earliest influences were [[Charles M. Schulz|Charles Schulz]]'s ''[[Peanuts]]'' and [[Al Capp]]'s ''[[Li'l Abner]]'', which he would collect by clipping the strip out of the daily newspaper.<ref name="TCJ183"/>

Matt earned a degree from the [[Philadelphia College of Art]], majoring in illustration. After graduating, he attempted to gain a foothold in magazine illustration in New York, but failed. He started drawing comics in 1987 after getting a job at Philadelphia comic-book store [[Fat Jack's Comicrypt]] and doing assistant work for his friend and college classmate [[Matt Wagner]], the creator of ''[[Grendel (comics)|Grendel]]'' and ''[[Mage (comics)|Mage]]''.<ref name="TCJ183"/>