Yesterday, I received the 146th and final issue of Cartoonist PROfiles, a fine magazine that covered comic strips and political cartooning (and occasionally, comic books) for more than 35 years. We noted here in June that its editor-publisher, Jud Hurd, was in failing health and that the magazine would probably be ending. Sure enough, Mr. Hurd passed away on September 14 (as noted here) and now, subscribers have the last issue, which appears to have been assembled mostly by friends and family.
I started collecting Cartoonist PROfiles around issue #30. I spent years hunting for the earlier issues at comic conventions and managed to scrounge up 25 of them. The day I first discovered eBay, my first search was "cartoonist profiles" and when it displayed auctions for the errant five, they became my first (and perhaps happiest) eBay purchase. It really was a fine publication.