- “Ever wonder where our stories come from? Sometimes our source is as simple as Donald's homebrewed community paper...”
- ―The opening narration
"70th Heaven" (40 jaar DD Feest! in the original Dutch) is a special Donald Duck comic story written in 1992 by Evert Geradts, penciled by Daan Jippes, and inked by Michel Nadorp. It was originally written to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Dutch Donald Duck comic magazine and features guest appearances and cameos from almost every Disney cartoon/comic franchise up to The Great Mouse Detective, making it the biggest Disney crossover until House of Mouse nine years later.
The story made its US debut with its official English title in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #715. While the original Dutch version was a fourth wall-breaking story about celebrating the Dutch Donald Duck comic's 40th anniversary, the official American version instead focuses on the Ducks celebrating the 70th anniversary of an in-universe community paper, hence the title. The story was planned by Gemstone Publishing to appear in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #700, where it would be titled "700th Heaven"; unfortunately, Gemstone lost the Disney comic license before reaching that number, and when Boom! Studios picked up the series a year later, issue #700 instead featured part of the Italian-produced Ultraheroes arc from Topolino. As a result, the story was instead published in commemoration of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories' 70th anniversary, though the issue containing the story came out at the start of 2011, which would actually be the comic's 71st year in print.
Summary[]
Donald, Daisy, and the nephews plan on hosting a party in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Grandpa Humperdink Duck's homebrew community paper, the Webfoot Waddle (or rather, the 40th anniversary of the Dutch Donald Duck comic magazine in the original version). But Gladstone Gander is hosting his own party for the lucky people on the same day (due to his disapproval and dismissal towards the Webfoot Waddle and trying to cover his embarrassment after being predicted for one his usual habits) and recruit Gyro to produce the invitations. However, Gyro's invitation-making machine ends up sending out the invitations so fast that they fly out to all corners of the world and arrive in the hands of Disney characters everywhere. When all the characters arrive in Duckburg for Gladstone's party, they are turned away and instead go to Donald's party celebrating the Waddle's anniversary. In addition, the people from Gladstone’s party come join because the latter’s party was dull and boring.
As the party starts, the Duck’s equipment is sabotaged by Mr. Jones before starting and, despite everything not going as the ducks planned, the audience still enjoys it. Although Jones is exposed, the ducks expect that their play won't last long anyway due to the equipment and performances' shortage. However, the rest of the Disney characters have other ideas: almost all of them decide to perform in the Ducks' show to make it last longer. Thanks to the performances, the Webfoot becomes a success.
Cameos[]
- From Mickey & Friends cartoons and comics
- From Silly Symphonies and related comics
- From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- From Pinocchio
- From Dumbo
- From Saludos Amigos
- From Make Mine Music
- From Song of the South
- From Cinderella
- From Alice in Wonderland
- From Peter Pan
- Peter Pan
- Tinker Bell
- Two of the Lost Boys
- Captain Hook
- Mr. Smee
- From Lady and the Tramp
- From The Sword in the Stone
- From Winnie the Pooh
- From Robin Hood
- From The Great Mouse Detective
Notes[]
- One of the nephews reads a letter from a reader complaining that "planned issue 694 became 698" and that their copy of the 700th issue was numbered 384. These are referencing actual production errors that had occurred with previous Walt Disney's Comics and Stories issues. Due to scheduling problems at Gemstone Publishing, the "next month" column in issue #693 described the next issue's contents of what would ultimately appear in issue #698. A year later, when Boom! Studios published issue #700, a percentage of the "C" cover was mistakenly labeled with the number 384.