AMANDA

Amanda Fisher-Ling was born to Meri Lin Ling and Fred Fisher on July 31. Though quite healthy, she gave the doctors and her parents some surprises, most notably by being born without any pinkie fingers or pinkie toes. She's very fair and blonde for someone who's half Chinese, which puzzles her mother--her parents seem to think she somehow got all their recessive genes instead of their dominant ones!

The baby's other odd physical features include very elfy-looking ears and startling green eyes that look too big for her face. But those surface differences are only the beginning. Amanda has many other fun surprises up her sleeve, but for now she's just a baby, and comic readers will find out all her quirks as her parents do. If you'd rather be surprised about Amanda's surprises, please skip the next section, as it gives away a big spoiler.

You can see some of her facts and figures at the bottom of the comic page where she was first featured: #0039: meri lin #20: she's perfect.

Soon enough, Amanda's storyline steps into the speculative fiction area instead of just being a family drama; her mother discovers that the baby has the ability to move objects without touching them. Realizing that her child has "this thing called telekinesis" is even more of a shock when Meri Lin finds out there really aren't any documented cases of Amanda's caliber. Now she's faced with a total unknown, because no one really knows the limits of Amanda's powers and how she should be disciplined . . . and who it's safe to tell.

But for her part, Amanda seems like a happy baby who just wants to drool and eat and laugh and play, and of course learn about her world. Being able to move things without touching them changes her development style a little bit, of course--for instance, why would you crawl toward interesting objects if you could just bring them to you?--but except for a few glitches, Amanda is having a grand old time growing up, and this comic is about just that.