Hi exudotcom,
I personally recommend Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, as I have used both programs, and I like both very much. I have never used Fireworks, though I will be trying it out soon. However, the former two are very safe bets if you're looking for a stable and powerful graphics program. 
You'll find tons of tutorials on Google by simply typing in the name of your graphics program (let's just say Photoshop), the type of image you're creating (I believe you want a banner), and the word "tutorial". So "Photoshop banner tutorial" should do the trick. (in fact, I'm going to go try it right now)
*finished searching*
It does yield a few results, though you might have to look on the 2nd and 3rd pages. I found about 5 of them. I hope my response helps!
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for simpler tasks. Here is a thread by DC that features a bunch of links to tutorials.
