The Dungeon series: a comic created by Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim. In it they depict the vaguely D&D-style adventures of Herbert the Duck and Marvin the Dragon as they try to figure out what to do in life. The Dungeon is the centerpiece of the tales.
Turn the pages with glee as Herbert is fettered to a legendary sword he cannot draw, and thus must learn how to kill foes with a feather. Read about Marvin, a stout fire-breather who cannot attack anyone who has insulted him! See the village of lazy, drunken rabbits who are unfriendly to strangers! Eventually everybody gets side-tracked with cakes and cookies!
The writers seem to have taken something from every great serial around, whether comic, television, or "moving picture" series. You have an epic-scale story that takes place in three different timelines, all revealed slowly, giving you a similar feeling to the Star Wars trilogy as certain events are referenced of which only the characters are privy, and remain in the reader's imagination. There are moments of light heartwarming nature similar to that of the Bone series and in turn also the moments of perfect stupidity of characters and illogic of the world, as in Futurama. It's also an epic tale of internal and interpersonal struggle in a fantasy setting like Cerebus but it's not boring and psychotic. Finally, possibly owing to a European attitude toward sex, ribald situations abound, but aren't dwelled upon with a barely disguised fascination for the reader.
The artists manage perfectly with space; no panel is ever wasted. Story and dialogue never drag, nor are there rows of animated successive actions.
And some of them might entertain your kids! I'm guessing the authors wrote Dungeon Parade with kids in mind, although the kidification doesn't detract from the characters or story at all. Depending on how you feel about cartoon nudity, Zenith 1 & 2 might be alright as well, with Zenith 3 having art perhaps a bit more realistic. Cartoonish gore and blood occur, as well as a few lampooned shaky morals (e.g. a group of vulture people who cling feverishly to their own subjugation), but I remember even Hanna-Barbera throwing questionable stuff at me as a young one, and I survived.
Existing English translations of the Dungeon series (in order of timeline):
Dungeon Early Years (volumes 1 and 2)
Dungeon Zenith (volume 1)
Dungeon Parade† (volumes 1 and 2)
Dungeon Zenith (volumes 2 and 3)
Dungeon Twilight (volumes 1-4)
Dungeon Monstres* (volumes 1-5)
† Dungeon Parade takes place between Zenith 1 and 2, however, they are simply side tales and do not contain very many plot-pertinent events.
* Dungeon Monstres contains stories from various points in the timeline, filling in the origins or adventures of secondary characters or showing other adventures of the main
It would probably make the most sense to start with Dungeon Zenith, as it introduces all the main players and was the first created. I started with Twilight, however, and, as most comic readers probably know already, this didn't ruin the read. Solid series.