So "comics getting smaller" was actually a real thing.

Collectively across the US, the daily newspapers shrunk the size of comic strips, which freed up more precious page space for other things like ads, or in rare cases, more comic strips.

Comic strips are an expense for a newspaper, so having them take up less space was a common practice.

Eventually with declining readership, and especially younger readers, and corporate buyouts of local newspapers, many papers eliminated their comics page altogether.