The Concept

(What it is and how it all started)

"You're such a nice guy!"

"I wish I could meet a guy like you."

"You're so sweet to listen to all my problems!"

"You're such a good friend!"

(Cue announcer voice)

Has THIS ever happened to you?

Are you the kind of guy that women see as non-threatening, a good listener...NOT someone to be romantically interested in?

Do you have that female friend that you're hopelessly in love with that unloads all her problems on you, only to end up back in the sack with that loser ex that cheated on her with her own sister, leaving you high and dry?

Do you let people merge into traffic in front of you, only to find them cutting you off three exits up and forcing you onto the wrong freeway?

Do you agree to housesit for your friends and take care of their vicious Stephen King dogs while they spend a week in the islands...even though you had floor seats for a playoff game that you're going to miss?

Let's face it, friend. YOU are a nice guy.

God bless you. And God help you.

One day back in the mid-90s somewhere, yours truly (Michael O'Connell) and best-friend-since-fifth-grade and then roommate Tim Watts were sitting around the house they shared with their pal Rich, talking about this very concept. Both were annoyingly single, having both just gotten out of long term relationships. Both were lamenting, as sad single men do, about how all the jerks out there seemed to be hooked up, while the nice guy--the stalwart, the do-gooder, the all-around good Joe--couldn't seem to find true love (or any love, for that matter). It was your standard can't-get-a-date bitch session. But from that conversation, an idea formed.

See, your heroes here happened to be a writer and an artist.

The idea for the Nice Guy came from that night, a comic (book or strip) about your typical nice guy that most of us can relate all too well to. Taking "nice guy" moments from our own lives, we started brainstorming, and the idea grew, and spawned a group of characters. And we got right to work on the project, and had high hopes for it.

Okay, we're in the 21st century, now...

Life gets screwy. Tim moved to the Bay Area...then I moved to San Diego, he moved to L.A., then he moved back to Sacramento. No longer sharing a house (or a town), we continued to try and coordinate and get The Nice Guy off the ground, reworking the material and debating formats and artistic styles. But things like work and life and graduate school (in Tim's case) tend to get in the way, and the project has languished for some time.

But now, finally, we've gotten our act together, and bring you this web page, full of free Nice Guy strips, and a print comic as well. Even though we started with the page and moved to the print version, this site will always be the hub of it all. You'll always be able to enjoy TNG for free if you don't feel like spending the dough. But we do hope you'll do both.

So away we go. We'll try to do our best to keep the pesky "real life" at bay and update this site with some regularity, and we'll keep you posted on what's happening in the future. Welcome to the world of The Nice Guy, and we do hope you enjoy. If so (or if not), please drop us a line and let us know.