The Book of Kongs

The Book of Kongs is an upcoming collectors book based on the Donkey Kong series. It is being published by Dark Horse Comics, using unused material created by the Rare writers of the so-called "golden age of Kong". While initially planned for an English-language 2014 release to correspond with the 20-year anniversary of Donkey Kong Country, unspecified delays forced the still-unannounced project to be shifted to a January 2016 (the Year of the Monkey) release in English, Japanese and French.

Development
Following the success of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia in Japan, Nintendo started assessing its other popular series for future publications even before translation of this first book was complete. While a Mario book was initially considered, creator Shigeru Miyamoto advised against such a move due to his long-held belief that the lack of continuity was part of the series' charm. His staff agreed, and instead suggested a book based off of the other series spawned from the original Donkey Kong arcade game, citing the popularity of 2010's Donkey Kong Country Returns. During unrelated talks with Rare, it became known to Nintendo that the original writers of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and Donkey Kong 64 had actually created an extensive backstory for the games and were still willing to tell the story "as it was meant to be". When told of this development, Miyamoto still had misgivings about the occasionally dark and violent subject matter that Nintendo had turned down nearly two decades earlier, but acquiesced when it was assured that the stories would be self-contained to the book, and not have any bearing on future Donkey Kong Country games. Rare agreed to collaborate with Nintendo on the project on the condition that their own scribes would write the first draft, in English. When Dark Horse Comics was signed on for English-language version of Hyrule Historia, Nintendo also licensed them to publish The Book of Kong.

Content
The book explores in depth the history between the Kongs and the Kremlings, leading up to the events depicted in the games. While most of the information is being kept quiet until the actual publication of the book, some excerpts pertaining to the so-called "Great Ape War" have been revealed to generate hype. Many details found in the games are being revealed to be references to the unknown war, and new material was added by the Rare scribes to link their original vision to the games produced after 2002, such as the loss of King K. Rool's tail prior to DK: King of Swing.

Aside from the war, other aspects of the series said to be discussed are the exact geography of the island nations found in the core Donkey Kong Country/Land/64 games, and the multiple generations of "Cranky/Donkey Kong"s that give the book its title.