I've never re-enacted scenes from the comics, but I do use them as the history for the characters. I quite like the challenge of coming up with storylines that weave around the events of the comics, building on things that were only touched on or adding to the epic stuff.
If I EVER get my act together and actually make the dio-story that's been "in the planning stages" for the best part of two years, it'll actually fit into the first couple of years of DDP's America's Elite series. It stands alone as its own story, yet won't contradict anything from the comics, with the intention of just making it an even richer reading experience if you're familiar with them. Plus some of the plot points draw from things in the Marvel run!
As I've said many times before, I'm a HUGE comics fan and do see them as the "official" story of GI Joe. With my own Joe-verse, rather than seeing their events as constraints/restrictions, I take them as foundations & materials for constructing my own grand ideas.
I totally understand using the comics as inspiration in the way yorktownjoe and Outrider describe -- just wanted to try and explain my own, differing modus operandi. I hope it makes sense...!?
