Cannot TURN OFF comments

I’m using WP (“Gather” theme by Devpress) on Digital Genie, where everything seems to work fine, and making a new one, Costume Goddess, where I cannot seem to get RID of the comment box on the bottom of every page (as I did on the first site).

YES, I’ve specified “static pages,” I’ve unchecked every box related to comments/discussion/posts.

The same few plugins are installed/active in both sites. Yet something must be different.

It’s apparently not theme-specific, since I previewed the site with other themes (including your default, “Twenty fifteen”) and the demon comment box appears in all of them.

Does anyone understand this better than I do? Am I overlooking something? Do I actually have to edit the CSS?

THANKS in advance! ~ Dina