I’ve come across this statement before and it always bewilders me. Calvin and Hobbes is popular because it is geek-friendly? In my opinion, it is sublime because it is everybody-friendly. The musings of the characters are normal-people emotions and thoughts.
Calvin’s escapism is a romanticised version of a feeling we’ve all had at some point or the other. Dad’s nerdy love for plain oatmeal and six-mile jogs in the sleet is a caricature of our own loved ones’ foibles that have us shaking our heads in private. I mean, seriously, which parent has NOT used the tone of voice that you can hear in every sarcastic word of “Now are you through charging around the house, or are you going to fall down the stairs again?”
Viva Calvin and Hobbes!