diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 218c8a88bd..a2b194dcdf 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Package: ggplot2
-Version: 3.4.2.9000
+Version: 3.4.3.9000
 Title: Create Elegant Data Visualisations Using the Grammar of Graphics
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Hadley", "Wickham", , "hadley@posit.co", role = "aut",
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index b6bd30f1db..3a393fc40c 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -116,6 +116,10 @@
   duplicated coordinates (@teunbrand, #5215).
 * Improve performance of layers without positional scales (@zeehio, #4990)
 
+# ggplot2 3.4.3
+This hotfix release addresses a version comparison change in r-devel. There are
+no user-facing or breaking changes.
+
 # ggplot2 3.4.2
 This is a hotfix release anticipating changes in r-devel, but folds in upkeep
 changes and a few bug fixes as well.
diff --git a/R/backports.R b/R/backports.R
index 7dea54cd3a..549a80f2c9 100644
--- a/R/backports.R
+++ b/R/backports.R
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Backport fix from R 3.3:
 # https://github.com/wch/r-source/commit/4efc81c98d262f93de9e7911aaa910f5c63cd00f
-if (getRversion() < 3.3) {
+if (getRversion() < "3.3") {
   absolute.units <- getFromNamespace("absolute.units", "grid")
   absolute.units.unit <- getFromNamespace("absolute.units.unit", "grid")
   absolute.units.unit.list <- getFromNamespace("absolute.units.unit.list", "grid")
@@ -18,6 +18,6 @@ if (getRversion() < 3.3) {
 on_load(backport_unit_methods())
 
 # isFALSE() is available on R (>=3.5)
-if (getRversion() < 3.5) {
+if (getRversion() < "3.5") {
   isFALSE <- function(x) is.logical(x) && length(x) == 1L && !is.na(x) && !x
 }
diff --git a/cran-comments.md b/cran-comments.md
index 2a13d28867..15f70e610b 100644
--- a/cran-comments.md
+++ b/cran-comments.md
@@ -1,73 +1,5 @@
-This is a patch release responding to a request from CRAN about new warnings in 
-R-devel. It also includes a small batch of of bug fixes since last release. 
-There are no user facing changes.
-
-All breaking reverse dependencies have been notified.
-
-## revdepcheck results
-
-We checked 4503 reverse dependencies (4468 from CRAN + 35 from Bioconductor), comparing R CMD check results across CRAN and dev versions of this package.
-
- * We saw 8 new problems
- * We failed to check 29 packages
-
-Issues with CRAN packages are summarised below.
-
-### New problems
-(This reports the first line of each new failure)
-
-* afex
-  checking re-building of vignette outputs ... WARNING
-
-* dalmatian
-  checking re-building of vignette outputs ... WARNING
-
-* DriveML
-  checking re-building of vignette outputs ... WARNING
-
-* EcoEnsemble
-  checking re-building of vignette outputs ... WARNING
-
-* ggtern
-  checking Rd files ... WARNING
-
-* siland
-  checking re-building of vignette outputs ... WARNING
-
-* TCIU
-  checking re-building of vignette outputs ... WARNING
-
-* xpose
-  checking tests ... ERROR
-
-### Failed to check
-
-* beadplexr       (NA)
-* CausalImpact    (NA)
-* CensMFM         (NA)
-* cinaR           (NA)
-* ctsem           (NA)
-* genekitr        (NA)
-* ggh4x           (NA)
-* glmmPen         (NA)
-* grandR          (NA)
-* immcp           (NA)
-* loon.ggplot     (NA)
-* MACP            (NA)
-* MarketMatching  (NA)
-* MARVEL          (NA)
-* nlmixr2rpt      (NA)
-* numbat          (NA)
-* OlinkAnalyze    (NA)
-* OpenMx          (NA)
-* Platypus        (NA)
-* PsychWordVec    (NA)
-* RcppCensSpatial (NA)
-* rstan           (NA)
-* RVA             (NA)
-* rxode2          (NA)
-* SCpubr          (NA)
-* tidySEM         (NA)
-* tinyarray       (NA)
-* valse           (NA)
-* vivid           (NA)
+This is a patch release responding to a request from CRAN about numeric
+version comparisons in R-devel. It also includes a workaround for changes
+in the `stats::density()` function in R-devel that affected visual tests.
+There are no user facing changes, so no reverse dependencies are expected to
+be affected.