Sidebar won't disappear

When I remove the call to the sidebar <?php get_sidebar(); ?> in my page template, it still shows up, at the very bottom of my page. But when I comment it out instead, like this:

<!– <?php get_sidebar(); ?> –>

it will not show up on the page (which is what I want) but these characters still display in its place:

–>

Just can’t get rid of them. Anyone know why? And why the sidebar would still display when the call is removed?

thanks!