12.26.25

For the last Friday of 2025 - how the fuck did that happen - I thought I’d share some favorite things from this year.

I love a list.

In my Morning Pages, I list 3 things I’m grateful for each day, but this ones different.

This is 52 things I’m happy to have found in 2025.

Books.

Boys.

Films.

Podcasts.

Artists.

Zines.

And other assorted stuff that found its way to me in 2025. Some are new. I’ve mentioned some before.

In no particular order…

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1. GHOST BOY by Jason Edward Davis.

This sticker has been on my laptop all year. It never fails to delight me when I see it. Not sure if it’s actually called GHOST BOY, but that’s my name for him.

2. BLEEDING directed by Andrew Bell.

   No other film this year took me by surprise quite like BLEEDING. Maybe JIM’S ROOM, but more on that later. It’s queer-ish horror that feels sombre and scary and scrappy as fuck.

3. KODIAK CAVE

Rarely does an ALL THE DEAD BOYS character come together as quickly and sharply as Kodiak Cave did. Improvising his back story and letting it play out over three nearly back-to-back shoots was both fun and creatively exhilarating. I know you’ll be seeing lots more of him in 2026.

4. PAGAN OTHERWORLDS

This is the Tarot deck that inspired me to start studying the cards. The paintings are incredible, and the PAGAN OTHERWOLRDS guidebook that goes with it is both simple and universal.

5. BLOODHAUS

   This podcast (hosted by Joshua Conkel and Drusilla Adeline) is a deep dive into arthouse horror, and it’s been my go-to this year. I’ve never met either in person - though I did Zoom with Drusilla because Sister Hyde did the new SWALLOWED poster and bluray zine.

6. These glow-in-the-dark storage boxes from Penco.

7. RANDY and BENSON’S HEA on Tumblr.

IYKYK

8. The Anal Surrealism Series by CEPHALOPHORE

Cephalophore is a NYC-based art incubator, project platform, and micro-press founded by Collin Garrett. I haven’t had the chance to deep dive into these yet, but they seem magical.

9. RAURY MOORE

AKA Michael Petit Jr. Not only is he great to photograph, but he just had his first art show of beautiful, haunting self-portraits. I love dead boy artists like Raury.

10. THE END TIMES is a newsprint paper delivered to your physical mailbox that serializes an end-of-the-world survivor account by Benjamin Percy and Stephen King. I got my second issue last week. LONG LIVE PHYSICAL MEDIA!

11. POSITIVE OBSESSION the Life and Times of Octavia E.Butler by Susana Morris. So be it! See to it!

12. I WALK THIS WORLD ALL BY MYSELF by Ekkstacy

I still can’t stop listening to this song.

13. COLBY

I’ve only shot with him once, but he’s 100% a BANGER. Plus, his IG stories is where I discovered I WALK THIS EARTH ALL BY MYSELF. More of him coming soon…

14. 52 FRIDAYS

My first little pornzine starring the sexiest, sloppiest, sluttiest boys from DIRTY LITTLE FRIDAYS. I loved making this and can’t wait to do more zines in 2026.

15. BEN That’s him above in 52 FRIDAYS. We didn’t get to shoot together as many times in 2025 as we did in 20024, but he’s endlessly inspiring, and the BENZINE will be coming your way this next year.

16. STORYCLOCK NOTEBOOKS. Sadly, this project came to an end in 2025, but I’ll be using Storyclocks for the rest of my storytelling days. Thank you, Seth Worley.

17. BACKWOODS BOY BANG

If you follow me on IG you know I SHOWED UP all of October for 31 DAYS OF BACKWOODS BOYS. I’d set myself a goal of getting 400 new subscribers for DIRTY LITTLE FRIDAYS by the end of the year, but showing up for a whole month on IG got me nearly double that number in just a few weeks. Plus the BACKWOODS BOYS are hot.

18. JIM’S ROOM directed by Zac King

This found footage film is down and dirty and made with such a kickass Non-Dé (Non-Dependent) attitude I’m willing to forgive any of its shortcomings.

19. I LOVE YOU JEFFREY DAHMER by Frederick Woodruff. This isn’t available quite yet, but you better believe you’ll be hearing a LOT more about it from me when it’s out.

20. ROVERS by Richard Lange. A kickass vampire biker novel that blew me away.

21. I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING by Daniel Montgomery.

    

    I’ve shot Daniel a bunch of times for ALL THE DEAD BOYS, but this was the first time I’ve been able to make it to one of his immersive horror theater performances. I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING unfolds in Daniel’s LA apartment, where you show up alone at your allotted time, and you’re led through an experience that's part haunted house, and part theater piece. SUPER inspiring. I will be checking out any / all of his stuff whenever I can. The shot above has nothing to do with the show, but we shot it the morning I went to check it out :)

22. Vintage issues of BLUEBOY, HONCHO, FIRST HAND, and THE JOCKY CLUB.

    

    Collected from eBay and Cultureedit. Print era porn rules.

    23. CAM and…

        

    24. TEO - These two are a match made in queer horror dead boy heaven. Actors. Singers. Performers. Boyfriends. They’re equally great together or solo.

        

23. HORROR IN THE HIGH DESERT by Dutch Marich and

24. TINSMAN ROAD by Robbie Banfitch (who directed THE OUTWATERS) Two queer found footage filmmakers making their own rules as they go and killing it. I’ve loved watching the HITHD world get bigger and deeper and creepier. Dutch has mastered the art of horror ‘edging’. And TINSMAN ROAD is both heartbreaking and harrowing.

25. HEATED RIVALRY duh

29. The OBLIQUE STRATEGIES deck by Bryan Eno and Peter Schmidt.

30. CARVED TOTEM BUDDIES by Aleph Geddis (pictured above with my Oblique Strategies deck) I love these little guys and find it endlessly inspiring having them around.

31. BE GAY DO CRIME! I spent Pride month diving deep each Friday into gays doing crimes. It was a fun one and I’m already starting to think about next June’s gay criminals. Any gay criminal favorites you wanna recommend?

32. NAPOLEON HILL. I keep coming back to his work and always find something in it to inspire me when I need it most. I specifically love listening to Mitch Horowitz read his audiobooks.

33. MICHAEL MCGRATHS’S yeti PAINTINGS

    

34. ISAAC GREEN aka Nature Twink

We’ve shot together a few times now, and I love how eager he is to roll around naked on the forest floor.

35. BABB’S CERAMICS

    I fell in love with her work the second I saw it at a craft shop pop-up in Maine. Her incredible fruit bowl now sits front and center on my counter in Maine and looks like some beautiful treasure dragged up from the bottom of the sea.

36. DEAD BOYS by Jame Unsworth

This zine is just the right amount of wrong.

37. POSTCARDS

I loved getting these ALL THE DEAD BOYS postcards printed and released into the world this year. Makes me want to make a deck of ATDB trading cards :)

38. THE DEVIANT by James Tynion IV & Joshua Hixson

Though the ending didn’t quite land the ending like I’d hoped, this queer horror Christmas comic was well worth the ride and oooohhhh so beautiful to look at.

39. THREAD PAINTINGS by Sal Salandra

Sal’s work is like some sort of sexy interdimensional rabbit hole that sucks you in and just doesn’t let go. Sal and I share a love of…

40. DAN

I met Dan in 2024, but this last year, we got to shoot together a couple times, and he’s fucking great. He also stepped up to the challenge of helping stage the ALL THE DEAD BOYS shot crawl at…

41. TWIN PONDS LODGE

(That’s him on all fours serving up a shot from the small of his back). This year was my first time at Twin Ponds here in Maine, and we had such a blast creating a backwoods ritual there for their Halloween weekend celebration.

42. UNWILTED paper flowers. Always beautiful. Never dead.

43. RUMMIKUB. Spent sooooo many hours spent playing this with friends this year at regular “game nights”.

44. ERIC

    

This summertime shoot with Eric in Maine kicked off my whole Backwoods Boys project. I’ve loved working with Eric for years (I wrote a whole show around him called SUCKERS) and look forward to whatever comes next in his story. He also took part in putting on the Halloween shot crawl :)

45. FINDING THE FOOL by Meg Jones Wall. My current go-to Tarot guidebook. Her insights into the cards always seem to hit just right. I also love CALL YOUR COVEN, the podcast she cohosts with Bee Scolnick.

46. COLORS OF THE DARK podcast. Another favorite (I’m listening to their 2025 top ten as I write this)

47. COWORKING ZOOM ROOMS. I spent most of 2025 spending every Tuesday and Thursday writing with Cody Cook-Parrott in LANDSCAPES on Zoom. LANDSCAPES sadly came to an end this fall, but I loved the whole accountability aspect of showing up to a scheduled session of focused work.

48. JON ARIES

Another guy I shot for the first time in 2025. A super sweet (straight) NYC construction worker who’s trying his hand at OF.

49. IMMORTAL MASKS

I now officially have an addiction to IMMORTAL MASKS.

50. RED ROOMS directed by Pascal Plante. What a fucking tense, creepy film.

51. JOE

    

Another BACKWOODS BOY from my summer in Maine. I’m sure you’ll be seeing lots more of him in 2026 :)

52. INTO ETERNITY by Farah

According to Spotify, I couldn’t stop listening to this song in 2025.

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The numbering got messed up somewhere in the middle there, but oh well.

What were your favorite things this year?

I hope everyone has had a great holiday, and I’m soooo looking forward to hanging out with you in 2026. As usual, thanks for being here. I really do appreciate it.

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Carter

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