In 1981 Meg Greenfield, editorial page editor of the Washington Post, asked Mark to create a comic strip about Washington for her op-ed page. Mark traveled to D.C. to do extensive research, and in November of that year the Post and the Village Voice jointly debuted his new creation, Washingtoon, featuring, among many other characters, Congressman Bob Forehead, chairman of the JFK-Look-Alike Caucus. The comic strip’s popularity with Post and Voice readers led to its being picked up by more than 40 newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Austin-American Statesman.