A reprinted story from Bill Everett back in the 70's era book, "Comix: A History of Comic Books In America," put me on the trail of Sub-Mariner stories from the 1950's. The detailed art and charm of these stories is consistently rewarding whenever I come across one. 

Jack Cole's Plastic Man always packs a wallop of imaginative and illustrative energy, especially the early ones which are often weirder and darker than one might expect.

I'll also throw in a mention for Jimmy Thompson's Robotman stories from Star-Spangled and Detective Comics. Consistently well-drawn and fun to read. I must admit that I like Robotdog a great deal... 

While I'm at it, I'll recommend Nic Cuti and Joe Staton's original E-Man series as well (some issues have back-ups by JB and Steve Ditko) and Star Hawkins and his robot secretary Ilda from Strange Adventures, especially the later ones drawn by Gil Kane. 

What about you? Let's keep this old school and draw the line at 1980 or thereabouts. 

Jim Stalin's Warlock

The clothing isn't as colorful and machine gun fire takes the place of long-range mystical zap-bolts and laser rays, but the energy of early Marvel is definitely present. 

DC and EC are still the ones I would go to for a more serious take on combat, with the proper gravity given to the events of war. Sgt. Fury is something of a romp whereas life with the combat-happy joes of Easy Co. is more of a slog. 

I'd like very much to read Mark Evanier's run on BLACKHAWK, which I've heard nothing but good things about.

I’ve always preferred Rock over Fury when it comes to war books.  Fury made a great spy, but never cared for his WW2 stories. 

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Not quite.  It's only "exactly the same" because it takes place during WWII.  The series ran for nearly 30 years....  400+ issues.  I'm sure there might be a bit of sameness throughout, but, otherwise, the stories are very character driven and usually very emotional.  And the art was fantastic.

Joe Kubert seems to be coming up quite a bit here. I recently picked up Volume One of Hawkman in DC Showcase, and I'm really enjoying those stories. Hard to go wrong with Kubert and Gardner Fox.

When I feel the need for a seventies nostalgia fix, I often go back to Marvel Two-in-One or Marvel Team-Up. I loved team-up books as a kid, and the Thing and Spider-Man, besides being probably my two personal favorite Marvel characters, were especially fun to see interacting with other MU luminaries. (Some great JB work in both those series, too!)