Jones was born in Cut Bank, Montana, and raised in Los Gatos and Gilroy, California. He currently resides in San Francisco, where he is a member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto.

Jones is author of the Eisner Award-winning Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004); Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (2002), and Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream (1993).

From 1987 to 2001, Jones wrote many comic books for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Viz Media, Malibu Comics and other publishers; including Green Lantern, Justice League, Prime, Ultraforce, El Diablo, Wonder Man, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, The Shadow, Pokémon, and Batman.

Jones is co-author with Will Jacobs of The Beaver Papers (1983), The Comic Book Heroes (1985, 1996), and the comic book The Trouble with Girls (1987-1993). From 1983 to 1988, Jacobs and Jones were contributors to National Lampoon magazine. He and Jacobs began writing humorous fiction again in 2008 with the online series My Pal Splendid Man and Million Dollar Ideas.

Jones appears in The Amazing Story of Superman, American Masters: Lucille Ball, "The Funny Business of America" and other documentaries.

Books

Books written include:

• The Beaver Papers: The Story of the Lost Season (with Will Jacobs, Crown Publishers, 1984, ISBN 978-0517549919)
• Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream (St. Martin's Griffin, 1993, ISBN 978-0312088101)
• The Comic Book Heroes: The First History of Modern Comic Books - From the Silver Age to the Present (with Will Jacobs, Crown Publishing Group 1985, 1996 - revised edition - ISBN 0517554402 )

• Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (Basic Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0465036967)
• Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (Basic Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0465036578)
• The Undressing of America: How a Bodybuilder, a Swimming Queen and a Magician Created Reality Media (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. forthcoming)

Comics

Comics work includes:

• The Trouble with Girls (with Will Jacobs and Tim Hamilton, Malibu Comics, 1987, tpb, Checker Book Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 978-1933160450)
• Oktane (with Gene Ha, Dark Horse Comics, 1996, ISBN 978-1569712122)
• Martian Manhunter: American Secrets, DC Comics

Films

• Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book

In an interview with Web and Comics journalist Nicholas Yanes of Scifipulse.net, Jones was asked if there were any plans to turn "Men of Tomorrow" into a film. He responded by stating the following: "I sold the screenplay to Michael Uslan at Comic Book Movies, but before we could put it on the market he declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which tied the rights up for over a year in court. The court’s now assigned the script to someone else, but nothing’s happening yet. Meanwhile, a couple of other producers are interested in adapting. Something will happen sooner or later."