Kamandi vs. Devil Dinosaur

I've mentioned before that my history with comics is pretty spotty. I read only a handful of titles when I was a kid, most of them collected by friends or friends of friends. At the same time, my knowledge of the basic outlines of most comic lines is decent enough that I can converse reasonably intelligently about the major characters and storylines of the DC and Marvel universes. So long as you don't expect to know anything about The Stylist or Omega the Unknown, I can generally hold my own, or at least by able to follow the thread of a conversation.

Despite this, I'm still regularly caught off guard when I discover that a character or series I'd previously either known little about or had even dismissed out of hand turns out to in fact be cool. A recent case in point is Jack Kirby's Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth. Now, in my defense, before Jeff Rients comes down hard on me for not adoring this comic, I have long been aware of it and its use as idea fodder for a Gamma World campaign.

But, for some reason -- I can only assume because Kirby drew and scripted them both -- in my younger days I confused Kamandi with Devil Dinosaur, a comic I did read and found simultaneously ridiculous and frightening.

Anyway, I'm attempting to rectify this gross injustice to Kamandi by acquiring reprints of the old comics. Unfortunately, it looks as if they're darned expensive to buy, so if anyone has any suggestions on how I might be able to fill the gap in my education without breaking the bank, I'd appreciate it.