the action is about to heat up, the third to last panel suddenly shows Ms. Nelson shouting, "Mr. Wilkins!!" as she catches Curtis reading his comics while he is supposed to be paying attention in class while he gulps and says "Ms. Nelson!" He immediately tries to get out of the situation by lying. The last panel shows Curtis being sent to the principal's office as punishment for reading comic books in class. Once in a while, Curtis and Barry, just before church services begin, will observe ladies coming in wearing elaborate hats on their heads. Curtis will promptly make jokes about each hat they are wearing as they pass by the pew that Curtis and Barry are sitting in, while Barry tries not to laugh too loud. In the last panel, while Curtis is laughing over his ladies' hat jokes, Barry will typically warn Curtis about big trouble coming to him if they ever heard him make insulting jokes about their hats (ironically, in one such strip, there were also two elderly men who mock the women's hats in exactly the same manner as Curtis and Barry do, causing Barry to worry even more as to what they might end up as). One recurring theme always involves Curtis and someone else (often Barry, but occasionally Gunk) entering some establishment with a name like "The Don King School of Personal Etiquette" or "The Mike Tyson Institute of Good Mannerism", then finding out it's really a music store. Curtis explains that "it's really my favorite record store in disguise" and that "every time the parents and the locals find out its real identity; they torch it!", apparently due to the type of music it sells (usually rap music featuring an artist with a rap sheet). The store's proprietor is a man from a Caribbean nation (presumably Jamaica) who wears dreadlocks and a Rastafarian cap. He treats Curtis like his best customer, making statements such as he got a shipment in just for him, or when Curtis cannot believe that a hard-to-find album is for sale, the owner responds akin to "Of course! Would I lie to the little prince?" This theme has been featured less since the advent of iTunes. Another recurring theme is the first day of school strip where the reader sees the city in the first panel. Then, the next two panels of the view brings the reader