Is there an html code that will force a background
image to load first, before anything else? Just wondered
if such a thing exists. Thanks!

not that i know of.

generally, images will load in the order from where they appear in the coding top to bottom. since most background images are near the top (either in css or in the body tag itself) it should load close to the start. the only thing that may make it load slower is if it is a larger size file. the browser will start to load it but will also load the other images it comes across. if the other images are smaller in file size, they will obviously be appearing faster.

Thanks, PB&J! The only browser giving me problems loading my
background image is Netscape. IE and Safari load it right away,
but, with Netscape, you start to wonder if it's going to ever load
at all. I'll run the image through Photoshop for less KB and see
if that makes a difference.