Graphic novels use words and illustration without casting a pall over long summer days.

Watchmen, Maus, Black Hole, Jimmy Corrigan, Fun Home, Special Exits, Sandman… these are just some of the titles considered the pinnacle of the graphic novel artform.

They are intellectually hefty and emotionally deep works, and you should read them. Just not this summer. What you want is lighter, brisker, funnier fare, stuff you can put down to go for a swim or a hike or a drink without it haunting you or causing introspection, and you can casually come back and jump in again with zeal.

Saga written by Brian K. Vaughn and illustrated by Fiona Staples

John Stracuzzi of Intergalactic Imports at Del Monte Center calls this new, novel, award-winning, (sometimes violent) sci-fi/fantasy a “Romeo & Juliet in outer space.” It follows an inter-celestial alien couple and their newborn as they try to navigate injustice, gender roles, ethnicity and a universe at war.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

You’ll find Satrapi’s hugely successful, early 2000s-era, two-part autobiography on many top graphic novel lists. It’s the story of her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and her young adult years in Austria and France, told with lots of detail and charm, peril and emotion.

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

For its unflinching depiction of two tween girls approaching teenagerdom in different ways, this graphic novel was awarded the Caldecott medal and was also banned. But as one astute writer put it, “Young adult books give kids the chance to be adults, and adults the chance to be kids.”

Hip-Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor

This series covers the birth and burgeoning of hip-hop as a raw expression of poor kids in New York before it grew into the cultural force we know today. It’s big in format, colored and inked to look like faded 1980s newsprint, and meticulously detailed. It’s pop culture with a beat.

Bone by Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith’s much-heralded, epic (originally published serially from 1991-2004), cartoon-style stories follow the three Bone cousins as they try to liberate a medieval-era valley from evil creatures while dealing with shifting relationships. Travis Pratt of Current Comics says that the series of nine books were out of print for a while, but they “got a ton of those back in.” You (and your kids 10 and older) are so lucky.