“The September 11 attacks taught me some lessons,” he said later “One, cigarettes may not be what kills me. (His wife, Fran?se Mouly, is the art editor there.) His first response to the atrocities – an almost entirely black cover for the magazine, on which the iconic rectangular outline of two towers could just be discerned – was rapturously received.(“When I saw the picture for the first time,” wrote the novelist Paul Auster, “it was as if Spiegelman had placed a stethoscope on my chest and methodically registered every heartbeat that had shaken my body since September 11.”) But Spiegelman – a child of Holocaust survivors whose whole life has been coloured by the shadow of ideologically motivated terror – was traumatised by what he had seen that day, and wanted to do much more in response to it. It’s a short walk: he lives “in the last block that wasn’t sealed off” when the twin towers collapsed, while his daughter Nadja goes to school nearby. When he gets there, he will meditate on the monstrous loss of innocent life two years ago. He will also reflect on the fear that he felt as he saw the towers in flames, and on his panic as he frantically searched for Nadja in the chaos; and on the thousands who, unlike him, failed to find their loved ones alive.
But the acclaimed creator of the Maus books might also reflect on the curious evolution of “In the Shadow of No Towers”, the cult cartoon strip into which he has channelled his response to that day and the events that have flowed from it.Spiegelman was working at The New Yorker at the time as a designer and illustrator. Word has it the contract could be worth as much as £20m to RPS.

Richmond Foods ticked 3.5p higher to 438.5p on whispers the ice cream maker enjoyed stellar sales during the summer.. This morning, if he gets up in time, Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer-prizewinning New York cartoonist, will walk to Ground Zero – early, to avoid the crowds, as he did last year. The textiles group also posted interim results yesterday which did not make pleasant reading for shareholders. Dawson’s pre-tax losses widened to £9.5m, from £6.5m a year earlier.RPS gained 3.5p to 161.5p on talk that the environmental consultant is close to securing a major contract win. Dawson International ticked 0.75p higher to 13.25p after the purchase of 385,000 shares at between 14p and 15p by Alfredo Canessa, an executive director. Over the past two years, the group has unveiled a series of major contract wins for its software, including a deal with a large insurer and the US corporate giant General Electric. Servicepower is due to post interim results on 18 September and Evolution Beeson Gregory was heard yesterday assuring investors that they will not disappoint.Conroy Diamonds soared by 65 per cent, or 3.75p, to 9.5p, after the AIM-listed explorer boasted of a new gold find at its prospect in County Monaghan, Ireland.

Kiln was unchanged at 93.5p ahead of interim results from the Lloyd’s insurer next week Investors can look forward to strong numbers from the group. Analysts are forecasting a pre-tax profit of £11.8m from Kiln, up from £3.5m a year earlier, and way ahead of the £10.5m the group achieved during the whole of last year.Servicepower lost 0.5p to 31.5p despite announcing a £400,000 contract with Siemens. It forecasts that the money the group makes from Losec will fall from £24m this year to £5m next year.According to reports in the Indian press, the state-owned oil giant ONGC is considering a move to take stakes in a number of Cairn Energy’s offshore ventures in the region. Analysts reckon a deal is likely to raise Cairn’s net asset value Shares in the oil explorer gave up 2p to 364.5p. Deutsche upped its rating on the mobile phone group to “buy” from “hold” and set a new price target of 68p. Earlier in the week, the blue-blooded broker Cazenove completed a similar upgrade.A downgrade by Merrill Lynch sent Yule Catto 22.5p lower to 311p.