"Fritz Bugs Out" was serialized in "Cavalier" from February to October 1968. In the summer of 1968, "Fritz the Cat" strips appeared in the Viking Press compilation titled "Head Comix", which focused exclusively on Crumb's material. In 1969, Ballantine Books paid Crumb a $5,000 advance for the publication rights to a compilation of three stories featuring Fritz. Crumb used the money to purchase a three-acre lot. In 2017, Crumb's original cover art for the Ballantine collection sold at auction for $717,000, the highest sale price to that point for any piece of American cartoon art.