diff --git a/.Rbuildignore b/.Rbuildignore
index fb57655..980480c 100644
--- a/.Rbuildignore
+++ b/.Rbuildignore
@@ -11,3 +11,5 @@
 ^\.travis\.yml$
 ^appveyor\.yml$
 ^codecov\.yml$
+^cran-comments\.md$
+^CRAN-RELEASE$
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 818bb04..d0bf465 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: gganimate
 Type: Package
 Title: A Grammar of Animated Graphics
-Version: 1.0.2.9000
+Version: 1.0.3
 Date: 2019-03-03
 Authors@R: 
     c(person("Thomas Lin", "Pedersen", email = "thomasp85@gmail.com",
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 4f9419b..a33b361 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-# gganimate (development version)
+# gganimate 1.0.3
+
+* Fix a conditional in the plot building step to make it work with the ggplot2
+  3.1.1 hotfix
 
 # gganimate 1.0.2
 
diff --git a/cran-comments.md b/cran-comments.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f9997f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cran-comments.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+## Test environments
+* local OS X install, R 3.5.1
+* ubuntu 14.04 (on travis-ci), R 3.5.1
+* win-builder (devel and release)
+
+## R CMD check results
+
+0 errors | 0 warnings | 0 notes
+
+This is a very minor release, fixing a single bug occuring with the submitted
+ggplot2 3.1.1 package. The code anticipated changes in the next release of 
+ggplot2 that is not part of the 3.1.1 hotfix. The version check in gganimate
+has been updated accordingly.