Tutorials on creating a wordpress theme and WP as a CMS

This a an amazingly comprehensive tutorial, shows you how to make all aspects of a theme, even 404 pages, and CSS frameworks. By the trusted Themeshaper blogger. Go here first.

http://themeshaper.com/wordpress-themes-templates-tutorial/

another tutorial

http://wordpresscms.ithemes.com/basics/getting-started/

PHP 101

read this...

http://devzone.zend.com/article/627

theme dev checklist - really good checklist for a full theme

http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development_Checklist#.22Theme_Unit_Tests.22