WittyWorld was involved in its share of controversies in those early years, as it was later. When its law columnist was charged with defrauding cartoonists, the magazine did its own investigation and gave the story prominent display. On another occasion, Szabo engaged in debate in the trade press with Cartoonists & Writers Syndicate president Jerry Robinson over the issue of creator's rights. In 1990, one controversy led to the White House, when Time magazine chastised First Lady Barbara Bush for writing the greeting for WittyWorld's Budapest festival. Time, as well as then Newsday cartoonist M.G. Lord, said many of the fest's works were scatological, and that in light of then-current censorship instances concerning nudity in the United States, the First Lady could not be affiliated with such an event if it were held in her homeland. Szabo responded to Time that the news magazine "had an unwholesome focus in examining an enormous body of creative work" and that the festival covered a "wide range of topics which went far beyond the single-handedly picked few instances of depictions of male genitalia."
WittyWorldhas also been a leader in displaying examples of plagiaristicactivity; at the same time, Szabo has kept abreastof, and reported upon, governmental and religious censorshipand persecution of cartoonists around the world.WittyWorld's findings were widely discussed and reprinted, amongthem in the New York Times in an article by Garry Trudeau.
Flattering as it may be, others have also taken--often without permission or proper credit--from WittyWorld. Numerous articles, cartoons, and research information have been lifted and then reprinted in other cartoon periodicals, including Kayhan Caricature (Iran), Mieux Vaut en Rire (France), and Cartoon (Bangladesh). In other instances, WittyWorld features and ideas, especially the calendar of competitions and the depictions of plagiarized cartoons, as well as the magazine's design (Shpitz in Israel and Inkspot in Australia), have been imitated. Among the borrowers are domestic and international trade publications and well-known consumer magazines, including the official FECO (Federation of European Cartoonist Organizations) and CAPS (Comic Art Professional Society) newsletters, and unbelievable as it may sound, even The New Yorker magazine, which just weeks after WittyWorld made international news with its blank cover for cartoonists to draw on, published its own version of the same idea.
Cartoonists interviewed by WittyWorld staffers read like a who's who - David Levine, Friz Freleng, Mort Drucker, Chari Rachawat, Larry Alcala, Charles Schulz, Jim Unger, Pat Oliphant, Jerry Robinson, Oleg Dergatchov, Jock Leyden, Lat, Carlos Gimenez, Miroslav Bartak, Ares, Roland Fiddy, Roland Topor, Liao Bingxiong, Tati, among many others. During the years, WittyWorld has published cartoons and/or reported from 110 countries and territories.
In the mid-90s two other advances were made. In 1994, WittyWorld was one of the leaders, if not the first, to build a major cartoon site on the World Wide Web of the Internet--it's still a puzzle why it was destroyed by a hacker a few years later. Then in January 1996, the magazine was changed to a bulletin, carrying most of the old features, but adding the quality of more timeliness. For the next two years the new yearly format was ten bulletins along with a color annual magazine.
After a twelve-year run, due to personal reasons, Szabo suspended all of WittyWorld's activities in 1999 until the end of 2001, when the organization re-emerged with a completely rebuilt and redesigned web site. In less than a year WittyWorld's international syndication service was launched. Among the first newspapers to sign up were The Washington Post, New Zealand Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Hong Kong Standard and The Boston Globe.
WittyWorld's contributions to the advancement of the field of cartooning were due to a versatile and conscientious editorial staff, made up of individuals accomplished and famous in their own right; a former deputy minister of culture, professors, a museum curator, an editor of cartoon and comics encyclopedias, founders and directors of five international cartoon festivals, heads of cartoonists organizations, the executive director of International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), editors of six cartoon and comics periodicals and an online magazine, one of the fathers of the anime movement in the U.S., and many famous cartoonists whose works are seen everywhere. One former editor moved on to become an ambassador of his country.
