Zine Review: The Happy Loner

The Happy Loner

Zine, Izalixe Straightheart, 16 pgs, $3, TheHappyLoner.weebly.com, [email protected]

Izalixe Straightheart lives in Quebec City, in a cove by a river. She also hand-crafts a zine called The Happy Loner that is a hyper-localized document of assorted drama, dramas, and micro-dramas.

I use all three of those terms in a 100% non-pejorative fashion. The beauty of The Happy Loner is that it overshares in a way that isn’t glib, attention-starved, boastful, or falsely modest. Instead, it’s honest, engaging, thoughtful and self-aware. This is very much one of those “I feel like I’m reading their diary” zines, and Izalixe comes off as entirely likable, and totally like somebody who would be a helluva lot of fun to hang out and crack wise with. This is ironic, because the zine is about being (largely) a loner, and while it’s not like Izalixe doesn’t mention friends and socialization and the like, the zine really does focus in large part about various adventures in solitude.

My favourite part of this zine may be the taxicabs section, a unique and yet very relatable set of anecdotes about taxi usage, drivers, fair fares, and some unfair stuff. This, and pretty much everything else in this zine, is brave and smart and well worth reading. Basically, it’s what a perzine should be, or at least aspire to be. (Cam Gordon)