I'd agree with Catalyst 100%... but here's what I have to add.

Concerning Frontpage... As nice as it may seem to use it when you're starting out, I would avoid it. It uses MS-created code that isn't used anywhere outside of IE for the most part, has a bewildering interface (in my opinion) and creates hugely bloated code. Dreamweaver on the other hand does a very good job of producing what I would consider probably the smallest amount of code a graphically-driven editor could do. Of course, that still doesn't beat designing it by hand in notepad. I personally do the basic layout in dreamweaver and then edit the code substantially.

Again, just use Photoshop. It's the industry standard for a reason - It's complexity and power are unparalled.

I would say you could probably learn Flash without knowing any HTML or graphics whatsoever. It's in it's own niche in that you can create fairly good stuff just from inside the program and not needing anything external. It doesn't use HTML in any way, except to make itself viewable in the browser in the first place. I'm fairly confident that anyone could cover the basics in flash in a few hours. That doesn't mean to say that they would produce quality work, but they would have a good understanding of the program. Experience is the most important factor in producing good flash and graphics (and code).

I'm a little worried about you wanting to use Java... It's pretty outdated, slow and often not even installed on WinXP systems. I would say that flash can do almost everything you would want to do in Java, faster and using less bandwidth.

And of course, as Catalyst said, we're here so if you want help with anything feel free to ask.

You see that in most of the major forum sections there are recommendations for books and links to amazon for them. I would also suggest buying them one at a time and working through them seperately. It doesn't matter how many books you read - If you never put it into practice then it's pointless.