Archie Dominates iPhone Comic Downloads

He may be all smiles and freckles, but Riverdale's resident lady-killer hides a secret penchant for destroying his mobile comics competition in terms of raw downloads.

According to an official press release from Archie Comics and its iPhone distributor iVerse Media, Archie Andrews is number one on the smart phone, making it the most downloaded comic in the device's history.

Written by Batton Lash Art by Bill Galvan, "Archie: Freshman Year" #1 is the first in a five-issue iPhone series culled from the print editions of "Archie" #587-592. The story follows Riverdale's favorite son along with Jughead and Reggie, Betty and Veronica as the gang enters their freshman year of high school.

"Archie Comics have always been about the High School experience," said Victor Gorelick, co-President and Editor-In-Chief of Archie Comics, "These days most High School students have iPhones or the iPod Touch, and that makes iTunes one of the fastest and easiest ways for our fans to get Archie Comics. We are excited by the rapid success with iTunes and will be producing new comics exclusively for iTunes in the near future."

The first issue of the series was offered as a free download alongside many other promotional starter issues from iVerse, with subsequent issues priced at 99 cents.