Bigger Is Better Comic — Jacobsen

Abstract Jacob Jacobsen’s comic Bigger Is Better operates as a satirical critique of consumer culture, masculinity, and the American ethos of expansion. This paper argues that Jacobsen uses literal and figurative “bigness”—oversized panels, exaggerated anatomy, and escalating plot devices—not as a simple endorsement of size, but as a rhetorical tool to expose the absurdity of unending growth. Through formal analysis, contextual positioning within underground comics, and semiotic decoding, this paper demonstrates that Jacobsen’s work inverts the slogan “bigger is better” to reveal its inherent contradictions. 1. Introduction The phrase “bigger is better” pervades post-war Western ideology: from automobiles to fast food portions, from suburban McMansions to corporate mergers. In his comic Bigger Is Better (2018), underground cartoonist Jacob Jacobsen takes this axiom literally. The narrative follows a nameless protagonist who, after purchasing a “growth pill,” finds that everything he desires—his house, his ego, his rival’s head—must swell to grotesque proportions. This paper posits that Jacobsen’s artistic choices (panel size, line weight, visual density) mirror the thematic content, forcing the reader to experience bigness as both seductive and suffocating. 2. Biography and Context Jacob Jacobsen (b. 1981) emerged from the small-press “Gronk Comix” scene in Portland, Oregon. His style draws from R. Crumb’s cross-hatching, Chris Ware’s architectural precision, and the absurdist scale shifts of Japanese gekiga . Unlike mainstream superhero comics, where size signals power (e.g., Galactus, Ant-Man’s giant form), Jacobsen’s work treats size as a disease. Bigger Is Better was serialized in Mince Meat Quarterly (#4–7, 2017–2018) before being collected as a 64-page one-shot. 3. Formal Analysis: The Grammar of Gigantism 3.1 Panel Architecture Jacobsen deploys a variable panel grid. Early pages use six uniform squares—orderly, modest. As the protagonist consumes more pills, single panels begin to bleed across gutters. By the climax (the protagonist’s head bursting through a skyscraper’s roof), a single splash panel occupies the entire spread. Bigger panels do not signify climax in a heroic sense ; rather, they signify loss of control. The reader can no longer parse sequential time easily—bigness breaks narrative. 3.2 Line Weight and Detail Jacobsen thickens his ink lines proportionally to the object’s size. A normal-sized coffee mug is drawn with a fine .05 mm nib. The same mug, after growth, is outlined with a brush so thick that interior details vanish. Bigger becomes less detailed, less individuated —a direct visual argument against the idea that scale improves quality. 3.3 Color Palette (in the collected edition) The first half uses muted earth tones. Once objects exceed the panel’s boundary, Jacobsen introduces a garish neon magenta—the color of artificial excess. The final page, where the protagonist is a floating, featureless pink orb, uses no linework at all: pure, empty bigness. 4. Thematic Deconstruction of “Bigger Is Better” 4.1 Consumerism as Growth Hormone The protagonist’s first purchase is a “mega-soda” (a direct parody of the 1990s “Big Gulp”). After drinking it, his arm lengthens enough to steal a neighbor’s newspaper. Jacobsen satirizes the logic of “value sizing”: getting more for less only creates new needs (bigger fridge, bigger door, bigger coat). Each panel includes price tags and bar codes floating in the background, suggesting that bigness is commodified. 4.2 Masculinity and Phallic Excess The comic repeatedly features the protagonist comparing his enlarged thumb to a rival’s larger thumb. This thinly veiled phallic competition escalates until both men have thumbs the size of sedans, rendering them unable to open doors or tie shoes. Jacobsen inverts the male power fantasy: bigger is not better; bigger is disabling . 4.3 Environmental Allegory On pages 42–44, the protagonist’s house expands outward, crushing neighboring homes. No text appears—only the sound effect KRUUUNCH repeated in decreasing font size (paradoxically, the sound gets smaller as destruction grows). Jacobsen critiques urban sprawl and resource extraction: bigness requires the erasure of the small. 5. Reception and Interpretation Underground critic Mara S. Vane wrote that Bigger Is Better “makes you laugh until you feel your own ribs expanding against your skin—then it keeps going.” Mainstream reviews were mixed: The Comics Journal praised its “relentless formal logic,” while a Publisher’s Weekly blurb called it “nihilistic and claustrophobic.” However, the comic has gained a cult following among architecture students (who study its panel-to-scale mapping) and anti-consumerist groups.