The use of a sinking ship as cartooning imagery has been one of the staples of modern political cartooning for years. Nearly every cartoonist has drawn at least one cartoon featuring a ship going down as a metaphor for business, economics or even politics.

When five or more cartoonists draw the game gag, we refer to it as a ‘Cartoon Yahtzee.‘ There is a basic rule of thumb to go by, “if one other guy drew it, he’s a plagiarist; if five other guys drew it, they’re hacks; if a dozen other guys drew it, they are honoring a tradition”.

With the sinking of the Costa Concordia (view our Cruise Ship Catastrophe cartoons), several cartoonists thought the incident reminded them of the current situation with the Euro, and went to their drawing boards unaware some of their cartooning colleagues had the same thought.