Michael Rorrer, a 31-year-old Oxnard, California, resident, discovered 345 comics in a basement closet in his late great-aunt's Martinsville, Virginia, home in 2011, a collection quietly assembled decades earlier by his great-uncle Billy Wright. According to the Associated Press, Wright, who died in 1994 at age 66, collected the comics as a boy and young man between 1936 and 1941, later becoming a chemical engineer, and never discussed the collection with relatives beyond one brief mention. Heritage Auctions described the find as one of the most important Golden Age comic book collections in decades. Heritage Auctions reported in February 2012 that 44 of the 345 comics in Wright's collection ranked among the top 100 Golden Age comics in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, a detail the Associated Press also cited in its coverage of the auction. That concentration of high-value issues is part of what convinced buyers and experts of the collection's authenticity.
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