Show a little skin, grin big and make a hot calendar, a hunky guy for every month of the year.

So why not morticians?

They’ve got some studly fellows too, right?

Right.

So today we bring you the first-ever “Men of Mortuaries” calendar, a bare-chested, but mostly dignified look at some fellows who work in a mysterious and always somber profession.

It’s the creation of Long Beach, Calif., funeral director Ken McKenzie, who scoured the nation looking for some, well, what young ladies might call “smokin’ guys” to pose for this first-ever funeral directors calendar. And two of 11 who were selected ended up being from Iowa.

“Yeah, it’s a little different,” said Dave Fisch, 28, of Remsen, who sent in his audition picture with the approval of his dad, the boss at his family’s funeral home in Remsen. “But I decided, why not give it a shot? It might be fun. It was fun. It was a blast.”

Mike Hanes is one of those reluctant guys whose co-workers at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service in Iowa City shoved him into the thing.

“I thought they were kidding when they said they were going to send in my picture,” said Hanes, 32, a Solon native. “They weren’t. They sent it in. I was chosen. It was great.”

It’s not just a lark. Money raised from the sale of the $15 calendars will go to KAMMCARES, a foundation dedicated to helping breast cancer patients.

McKenzie got the idea a couple of years ago when his sister, Katie, was being treated for the disease. He saw how so many living expenses not covered by insurance were making things even more difficult for her.

The money raised from “Men of Mortuaries” will help women and their families with those expenses.

“Katie said something about seeing firefighters’ calendars and cops’ calendars,” McKenzie said. “She wondered why there isn’t a morticians’ calendar.”

The idea was born.

McKenzie ran an ad in an industry magazine, asking for funeral directors to send in their pictures, a biography and an explanation of how they got into the business. Hundreds of funeral directors applied, including the two Iowans.

Both Fisch and Hanes said they were assured the photos for the calendar would be in good taste and would not cross any lines. And they were happy with the way it turned out.

They were flown to California with the other morticians and were photographed at a Long Beach cemetery. Other photos were taken at a funeral home.

The cover photo is about as racy as it gets: Eleven morticians stripped to the waist, holding shovels next to a casket being lowered into the ground.

Hanes is “Mr. February,” and is shown wearing a dark suit, smiling in the foreground in front of a staged funeral.

Fisch is “Mr. August.” He is shown wearing suit pants and an undershirt, supposedly changing a tire on a hearse at the head of a stopped funeral procession. A clergyman and mourners are shown waiting impatiently nearby.

At least the Iowans weren’t posed in an embalming room, like “Mr. September,” a Georgia funeral director who is standing next to what appears to be a body under a sheet. Or “Mr. July,” a funeral director from Washington, who was photographed handing a folded flag to a woman alongside what is purported to be a dead serviceman’s casket.

That one includes a few words on the history of the flag and why it is folded into a triangle.

No try for laughs on either of those. Instead, they are an attempt to demonstrate some of what goes on in the business.

The morticians were flown to New York, where they appeared on national and local TV and radio news shows. They will be on an episode of “Inside Edition,” and some of the photos will show up in Playgirl magazine.

Fisch said the response in Remsen has been overwhelming. The 100 calendars he had for sale at the funeral home are gone, and more are on order. Hanes had 250 to sell, and they’re almost sold out.

“People in the industry were a little nervous about all this,” McKenzie said. “Now I’m getting e-mails from funeral directors who want to be in the 2008 calendar. It’s catching on.”

So, are the guys being pursued by women around the country who want to get a little closer to the funeral business?

“Some are,” McKenzie said.

Just not the two from Iowa.

At least not yet.

“It guess it would be OK if it happened,” Fisch said. “It depends on who’s calling.”

Only Hanes has heard of a complaint, and that came second-hand.

“I was told a woman in California wasn’t too happy with the calendar,” he said. “She thought it was too tasteful. She was disappointed we had so many clothes on.”