Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Andrea Landers
Hi Sydney Andrea, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Some part of me wants to believe that I always knew what I wanted to do in my gut from the very start but didn’t necessarily know how that would materialize eventually. I was creative and interested in art and history from a very young age and eventually settled with pursuing a B.A. in Art History in aims of being a museum curator. Going this route, I followed a mindset that I carried until last year: a way to pursue my interests in a traditional & stable manner.
My trajectory is one that many preservationists can attest to: having a baseline instinct and pivoting until you find your way home. I believe preservationists (formally and informally) are born with a desire to nurture our collective history and built environment but don’t exactly realize it’s historic preservation until they eventually stumble into the field. My caffeine-driven manner of stumbling into the field was by working as a coffee shop barista across from the architecture building. My regulars consisted of architecture faculty who eventually pointed me towards the HP program. The rest is history.
During the last semester of my masters, I enrolled in Dr. Tara Dudley’s American Architecture course. Dr. Dudley mentioned graphic novels as a potential capstone project medium and the gears in my mind started going off feverishly. That semester I researched, wrote and illustrated AGBANY: the beginning of the historic preservation movement. The 45 page graphic novel recounts the failed advocacy efforts of the Action Group for Better Architecture in New York (AGBANY) in the face of Penn Station’s demolition. I self published the graphic novel in a limited run of 100 copies the following summer.
After graduating, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in historic preservation consulting. Over the course of three years, I gained invaluable experiences that led my growth as a historian and opened my eyes to how businesses operate. While I liked the work that I was doing, I knew in my gut that I wasn’t going to be fulfilled in the long run and an urgent need to express my creative side consumed me. In my last year of working in the consulting field, I had been working on a freelance gig for the National Park Service. Developing a series of technical graphic stories for their seasonal and temporary workers on historic landscape care and maintenance opened my eyes to more nontraditional paths in the field. This opportunity allowed me a gateway to pursue this work more seriously.
In September 2024, I made the leap and launched “Squidny Comics” and went fully freelance as an Architectural Historian and Illustrator. Since then, I’ve continued my work with NPS and am starting to work on a graphic novel for the City of San Antonio’s African American Heritage Preservation Initiative. I have also been tabling at SoCal zine fests and share more informal publications on LA history and architecture with the community which has been incredibly rewarding.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Growing up, I had convinced myself that professional success defined by pursuing the traditional white collar 9-5 and moving up the corporate ladder. In the first few years of following this path, I realized I was pursuing this idea out of obligation rather than passion. Last year, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD after leaving it untreated for years. Through this diagnosis, I realized that the traditional workplace environment wasn’t conducive to how my brain worked nor was I able to utilize it to its fullest potential. I had always envisioned working for myself in the future as a far-off dream that could only occur once I was “established” in the field to make the big leap.
The past two years of my personal life helped me realize one thing: life is finite. We owe it to ourselves to pursue our dreams in order to be happy and fulfilled in the present moment.
Making this transition has been the most challenging and rewarding thing I have done in my career and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Operating my own business on all ends and figuring out work life balance has been a work in progress and I am grateful to have the privilege to continue refining my practice.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I offer illustration and design services for history-minded organizations looking to share their stories to a wider, more diverse audience. Through comics and illustrated graphics, I produce dynamic and engaging narratives with the informed perspective of a dual practitioner. Normally when you see graphic novels about history, its usually produced by a duo. Being a dual practicioner sets me apart as I can use my training as a historian to inform my creative work and vice versa.
In a nutshell, I’m kind of the historic preservation comics person. At the moment, I am most proud of self publishing AGBANY. Creating a 45 page graphic novel in less than three months was definitely something only a caffeine-driven grad student could do but it motivates me for future pursuits.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Sharing my first graphic novel, AGBANY, with a wider audience made me realize: people outside of the field are interested and eager to learn these histories, they often just don’t know where to start. By presenting the story in a graphic novel, the narrative was accessible and educational, escaping the constraints of field-specific mediums (white papers and monographs). This work roots me in the personal mission I developed when entering the field: to make the history of our built environment accessible for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://squidnycomics.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/squidnycomics
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneylanders97/
Image Credits
City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation.
National Park Service: National Center for Preservation Technology and Training/Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation.
