- The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms describes the phrase "panic stations" as the following: ""a time when you feel extremely anxious and you must act quickly because something needs to be done urgently."" An example: No matter how organized you think you are, one hour before the show starts it"s panic stations.When this collection of illustrations and cartoons was first published in 1966, Jean-Jacques Sempao had great difficulty coming up with a title. He waited until the last possible minute to make his decision, getting more and more wound up about the whole infernal naming process, hence the original French title of the book, La grande panique. But there is no cause for alarm, no need to man the proverbial panic stations: this book is laugh-out-loud funny, as one would expect from one of the great masters of the form.