B7 Comics to publish Iqbal Ali’s much-praised comic series “Mr Jones’s Smoking Bones” over two volumes.

Set in 1867 in England and India, offering a heady mix of murder, mystery and secrets societies, Volume 1 collects the first seven chapters of “Mr Jones’s Smoking Bones” and will be released 1 November 2025.

1867. The East India Company has fallen, and a smoking skeleton is killing ex-company members. A drug-addled Indian detective with a deep-rooted hatred of the British Empire is drawn into the investigation and enters a world of secret societies and the occult.

Fortean Times describes “Mr Jones’s Smoking Bones” as a series “…where science and the occult met in the shadow of the British Empire… An excellent comic told from a different perspective to others set in this era.”

BSFA, Eagle and Hugo Award winning writer Paul Cornell says: “An extraordinary work, an afterlife mystery approached almost as science fiction, with layers of politics and history. It feels like nobody’s written any previous comics and a master stylist has started anew without reference to genre or medium. In other words, Iqbal Ali is the new Alan Moore.”

Iqbal Ali says of his new partnership with B7 Comics: “I’m delighted to be partnering with B7 Comics to publish Mr Jones’s Smoking Bones. I’ve been a fan of their work on radio and comics for a while, especially the incredible audio dramas on Audible. So, to have my work alongside that catalogue is an honour. B7’s commitment to boundary-pushing work makes them the perfect partner for this project.”

Publisher, Andrew Mark Sewell, says: “I was immediately struck by Iqbal setting his story during a fascinating period in British colonial history, melding a supernatural mystery story, with the politics of the time, not shying away from the inherent racism. It’s a story that intrigues and demands your attention from the first page, with hints of science fiction, and not a superhero in sight, which is refreshing. It’s exactly this kind of rich, character led stories that defines what B7 Comics is all about.”