The Regal John Buscema Slouch

I came across this sketch yesterday on a John Buscema fan account...

It's clearly one of his preliminaries, but I have always been impressed with his ability to make literal scribbles look gorgeous. However, because of it's roughness, I initially took the sitting character to be Dr. Doom. Kind of a hood thing going on, some built-up lines around the shoulders suggest maybe a cape, the goblet... and the fact that I've seen Buscema draw Doom in that pose before. A little closer inspection, though, and I realized it was probably Conan. And sure enough, I came across the finished piece after a quick search...

But I got to thinking about that pose. Buscema actually used it a fair amount. I quickly recalled similar poses he did using Mephisto. So I did some more image searching...

You want to show the person in a room who has the most power? You put in them in this pose. The pose says they have absolutely nothing to fear from anyone, and they can just casually stretch themselves out over whatever it is they want to use as a thone. They don't have to even pretend to be tense and ready for anything, because there's nothing nearby they couldn't dispatch without even a first thought, much less a second. The instant something starts to go sideways, they'll make sure somebody's head will be rolling around on the floor by the next instant. I'm calling it The Regal John Buscema Slouch™.

Note, too, that it's not always exacty the same pose nor is it ever the same angle. Buscema knew it so well, he could draw it from the front, the side, a three-quarter overhead perspective... any angle, he could drop this in and make it look effortless. Dude was wicked talented.

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