Do books on How to draw Comic Books and Manga and Cartoons help

 too many. if i could suggest one this book was really helpful to me in understanding the 
exact process behind comic books and kept it very simple. shouldn't be too hard for
your comic store owner to get a copy of. (i believe the current edition has Spider-Man
on the cover. I've never read that version so I wouldn't know if the content differs) 
I think its good to understand how to draw, but at the same time it's helpful to know the
process to understand why things should be done a certain way.

" @slacker the hacker:   They help guide you but you have to be able to teach yourself from what you learn, after you have a direction, practice, practice, practice! Cartoons are not a bad starting point but manga and cartoons are not what you should stick with. Learn from correct anatomy and use photos for reference. Good luck! "

Books are good for training you the basics. 
Practice with them. 
 
In my library: I have at least more than 100++ books on drawing, painting, among others... 
The ones that I like is How to Draw the Marvel Way, Dark Horse Inking Book, Leanardo da Vinci's Sketchbook, Degas' Drawings, Walter Foster's Anatomy Book and several How to Draw Anime.   
 
I believe that one can not reach the top without taking a single step... meaning practice takes perfect.. your own style will follow later on. I have one cousin that I got into drawing and he really started from scratch, needless to say that he started at the age of 22 to literally taking the pencil to draw. It took him two years to get this going but where is he now? He has made a cartoon, a children's book and some splash page. Though he works now to a land development firm, his passion for drawing did not cease. He still draws and even the first one to have his art DA account.    
 
Here are the tips I give to my students:  
a) Have a notebook or sketchpad that you can doodle on.  
b) Make it realistic as much as possible first before moving on to the exaggerated forms. It is easy to play with anatomy and shapes if you know its true form. 
c) Practice also with angles and backgrounds. Some people tend to forget, that it is equally important to draw scenes for your character. 
d) Experiment, Explore and Enhance. Try different mediums or subjects, look into other people's art works and try to incorporate some to your own.   
e)Have fun! Don't kill yourself too much if you can't get things right the first time around. Art takes time to make and can't just be a hurried thing. Once you mastered your basics, trust me, its the time that things just come out naturally.  
 
Good luck and we do look forward in seeing your work here plus you joining our Artist Show-Off threads!    

Get books from Christopher Hart. They are good in tutorials.

" Get books from Christopher Hart. They are good in tutorials. "

there are a few things I think that will help, if you spend too much time focusing on drawing people which many artists do, your backgrounds and depth of field will fall short. It's a good thing to study perspective to add some great depth of field to your work, then once you have a good understanding some basic figure drawing or observational drawing will help. try carrying an art pad and a pen on you, whatever you can scribble with and just draw things you see as best as you can, doesn't have to be perfect.  
 
eventually you will gain an understanding of how the area and pose you're trying to capture will fall together rather than drawing some stiff figure with accurate muscles then trying to draw a background around that. 

Some of the best books every written on the subject of drawing are now public domain, namely Andrew Loomis' books.  Here's a link where you can download them for free:  
http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/2010/01/07/free-andrew-loomis-art-intstruction-downloads/
 
I also recommend  finding a figure drawing class with a good instructor ( good instructor a MUST):  
http://www.artmodelbook.com/figure-drawing-directory.htm
 
All the advise above is very good. I will add one more thing though.  The BEST way to learn, is to learn from a pro, or someone just as good.  They can guide you much better than anything else. It's possible to learn martial arts and music from books, but it's best to bet taught.  Same with comics. 
 
Also, don't worry about style. Drawing poorly isn't a style, it's just drawing poorly.  If you become a good draftsman, you can draw in any style and create as many styles as you want.  
 
Read a lot of comics, old and new, watch a lot of movies, old and new, read a lot of books, old and new.
 
Learn the three theories of story:

• Hero's Journey - Joseph Campbell (who annoys me) 
• Three Act Structure - Aristotle (Best book on the subject STORY by Robert Mckee)
• DRAMATICA theory - Free online at their site: http://www.dramatica.com/theory/theory_book/dtb.html

" @tonis: @DavidR: these two are more intone with what you should go for. If your looking for books i recomend things like the vilppu drawing manual. figure drawing by andrew loomis or burne hogarths dynamic figure drawing. These books were given to us students at the art institute of las vegas by are anatomy teacher "

One thing that was something that probably helped me even till now, at least the benefits of it. 
When I was around eight I decided that everything I drew at that time I would do so in ball point pen and or marker. Never using a pencil but drawing everything out carefully, pushing me to make less mistakes knowing I wouldn't be able to fix them. Had to be extra careful to have a satisfying final drawing, either that or I got pretty creative covering up my mistakes. : P

" One thing that was something that probably helped me even till now, at least the benefits of it.  When I was around eight I decided that everything I drew at that time I would do so in ball point pen and or marker. Never using a pencil but drawing everything out carefully, pushing me to make less mistakes knowing I wouldn't be able to fix them. Had to be extra careful to have a satisfying final drawing, either that or I got pretty creative covering up my mistakes. : P "