Fearless Photog: From 80's Obscurity to Today's Internet Pop Culture Infamy

Years pass. Humanity enters "the age of the internet". Somewhere in the labyrinthian byways of the world wide web lies a little known website called X-entertainment. The site's focus is on obscure 80's culture, mostly the parts admired or despised by the site's creator, Matt C. The site is small, but has a dedicated and loyal readership.
On May 21, 2003, Matt posts a blog titled "Who Was Photog?". And with that, Photog lived again. The "article" from Matt simply focused on what was known about the character of Photog and his creator Nathan Bitner, as gathered from Mattel's original publishings. What followed was the slow construction of a monumental blog of epic proportions that few have been privy to.
What began as a simple question, became an obsession. Matt's loyal readers began diving deep into the dark abyss of the internet, scouring up bits and pieces of information. But not on Photog. Their focus instead became his creator. At first it seemed an innocent enough task. However, the search for what became of Nathan Elery Bitner ballooned almost overnight. As one reader would soon post in the quickly growing blog, "That's more info than I have on some of my blood relatives."
The search for Nathan permeated other blogs on other sites, drawing several more readers into the fray at X-E. The game was on. It was as though if one could dig up the next juicy detail on Mr. Bitner, one could reach stardom among his fellow readers. But it would be Nathan himself, who would steal the spotlight.

For several months now, sordid details are emerging from what has become an all out internet manhunt. As riveting as the story is that soon unfolds before the reading eyes of the X-E posse, I will not post many details about it here. There are alot of websites out there that provide all the details you could ever want on the life of Nathan Elery Bitner thus far. www.fearlessphotog.com links to all of them, but does not post any personal details on the site itself. It, in part, serves as a hub.
Some information is out there with Nathan's full knowledge and permission. Such as his job working for the very successful video game developer, Bungie (Creators of the Halo franchise). During his time there, he is credited in some circles with creating the popular character "Cortana", among other things. Even in more recent years, Nathan was creating characters that others found fascinating. At one point in his life Nathan also joined the military as a medic in the Army. He even served in Iraq for some time.
It is sufficient to say that Nathan struggled as we all have at some point in life. Perhaps he faced demons more wicked than you or I, perhaps not. If you do not pursue the details of his life any farther, simply know this: He faced dark times, and overcame them.
As Thanksgiving weekend approached, the search for Nathan Bitner had reached a fever pitch. Posts flooded the blog at X-E. People from Nathan's past added their own stories and perspective. Other finalists from the same Mattel contest gave their own two cents. Readers claiming to be Nathan or one of his relatives came and went.
And then. . . . . at last. . . . . . Nathan found out.
At the time, Nathan was still serving in Iraq. His one and only post on the blog is the only statement he's made on the subject since winning the contest almost 20 years prior. His post follows:

Wow.

Happy Thanksgiving to you guys too.

This has got to be the most insane thing I have ever seen on the internet. And that's coming from me.

This is going to be (relatively) short (it didn't turn out short at all, but it's still very incomplete), because there's no way in **** I could respond to the sheer volume to give any kind of complete story. I could write every day for a month, and you would not have a complete story.

Well, where do I start.

A lot of what Tim said was either partly true or, as RIP said, had the seeds of truth. He knows which parts weren't at all true or more likely, which parts he simply didn't have enough understanding of or evidence of to know for sure. Tim, we can talk privately. It just won't happen right now. I am in the field from Dec. 2nd - Dec. 16th (at least) and things are generally pretty busy at Fort Stewart. I'm pretty disappointed that you posted the personal information that you did in the manner that you did. I won't mention anything about the Mafia. But, hell, I'm pretty disappointed that you had the bad fortune to interact with me at such a wholeheartedly ******-up time in my life.

Hey, Anonymous, I think I may have finally surpassed the Julia. This makes the Patty look like a picnic on a beautiful Spring day. You are authorized to tell any funny stories you deem appropriate. As long as they don't find out anything sordid about my personal life *sigh* riiighht

A few brief things:

Guys, the cult following thing was a little tongue-in-cheek. Boy, do I ever regret saying *that*

There are parts of my life that I really have no desire whatsoever to relive. I am a pretty open person, and I always have been. When you screw up, that leaves you particularly vulnerable. You are always vulnerable to being taken out of context to incomplete pictures being presented or simply to exposing the stupid things you may say or do. All of it applies to one part or another of this whole thing. But I don't regret being that way; living with the consequences can sometimes suck, but I doubt that's going to change me.

Speaking of "out of context", I'd like to strangle the AP Press guy. I was involved in MOUT (urban warfare) training and What he asked me was along the lines of this: "If you are fighting house-to-house and civilians are getting injured, are you going to be able to treat the Iraqi civilians in a battle?" My response was pretty much, "Well, obviously, if people are shooting at you, it complicates the medical situation, but we would render care to anyone we could safely do so to." And we did.

You can't join the Army to run away from bankruptcy or any other civil or criminal matter. The Soldiers and Sailors Act protects you from some minor things and gives you some minor benefits. Examples include: being able to break a lease immediately upon the day you leave for Basic Training without being responsible for any future rent or fees, not being subject to certain legal actions when deployed overseas, etc. Divorce, for example, can't be filed when you are in BCT or AIT. Any financial miscues (e.g. bounced checks, not paying bills) once you are IN the Army are punishable by UCMJ action as well as any civil or criminal proceedings. My financial situation is not something I think should ever be up for public discussion either, but since it already is the situation's fine. Yes, I filed for bankruptcy in January 2002. Everything has been good since then, I made lots of money in Iraq, I haven't done anything exceedingly stupid with it, etc. Of course, the six-figure military salary really helps a lot.

I haven't read this whole thing. I may never read the whole thing. I've looked at it probably 3 or 4 times, in little chunks. Why I chose to look at this tonight, I don't know. I'm at a friend's place for Thanksgiving, and this is the most I've ever read of this crazy thing. I laughed a lot. But Misti from the 4-H Club is not Misti, I have no idea who Heather Ramage is (I'm not scrolling up either), and I too feel sorry for Paul Bitner. Oddly enough, both my uncle and grandfather are named Paul.

As for YOU guys. . . wow. I really don't know what to say. Some of you clearly need to be struck in the head repeatedly with the ramp of my M577. Some of you are hilarious. Yeah, most of this stuff I can laugh at. Sort of. There's a line. Denise, suffice it to say that you would be uh, what's the right word. . . . happy (?) to know how I actually discovered this place. I can say with certainty that I would not have stumbled upon the Blog if it was not for you.

When I first saw this, I have to admit that I was pretty devastated. I couldn't believe it. It was a harsh reminder of just how horrible everything had been not so long ago. I had done everything I could to put that life behind me and flat-out start over. Much of it was brutal to read, to say the least. I knew very well when I posted non-anonymously to alt.suicide.holiday (oh, yeah, those were the days baby) that it would be there forever - so that's pretty easy to accept. But there are other things I never thought would be up for public discussion, and I have the very strong opinion that they never should have been. I think it was wrong, poor taste, poor judgment, kind of vindictive, and somewhat cruel. At the same time, I was guilty of at least the first three on enough occasions that it is not very difficult to understand that it happens.

I honestly don't know if responding here was wise or not, especially at 1 am on Thanksgiving and that's the main reason you never heard from me. I'm going against the advice of the couple of people I asked about it. I mostly preferred to ignore this whole thing. It didn't seem there was a nice, quiet way to end this without going into details I'd rather not be dredging up again. Or getting into arguments. Or debates. And I'm not planning on it. I'm not going to debate the details of my personal life with anyone. I hope you guys will keep it from degenerating into anything like that.

Well, this turned out to be anything but short, but I really need to get some sleep. Anonymous, I can't be certain which friend you are, but thanks. It looks like I've got a whole lot of neck damage and CPR to dole out. Write me or call me. I promise I'll be in better contact. =)

I ask one thing - when you read this, instead of taking any time to think about or write anything having to do with me, take a moment to think of the guys and girls who are in Iraq right now. And the ones who gave their lives there. Those who died are true heroes in the deepest sense of the word; I am not - I merely did my job, and I got to come back home. The American people have been so supportive and, believe me, it was and is very appreciated by all of us. So thank you.

I'll try to answer your questions at some point; you'll have to be patient. Needless to say, you seem to know no bounds when it comes to that.

So I guess this means a political career is out of the question?

Worship Ditka.

Indeed.

Best wishes,

Nathan

Nathan never posted to the blog again. But, the blog itself continued on for quite some time. . . . replete with all the speculation and conspiracies you could ask for. It exists today for posterity, at it's original home on X-Entertainment. It's total posts reaching over 2,400!

For all it's mystery and drama, the story of the search for Fearless Photog's creator serves as an eerie reminder to us all. In our day, personal privacy is fading away fast. Every post, e- mail, and search created by you is saved somewhere in the halls of the world wide web. Along with your name, phone number, address, and more. It's a short drive from a peaceful, private existence. . . . to infamy, available for gawking on a global scale. So, what about Photog? Well, if you're a fan of He- Man and his buddies then you know there is STILL no such thing as a Fearless Photog action figure. This despite the fact that Mattel has re- launched the Masters of the Universe toy line 2 or 3 more times since the 80's. In fact, some Mattel staff recently played an April Fools joke on fans by claiming that a Photog action figure would be available for the 2010 San Diego Comi- Con (an entertaintment tradeshow). They even went so far as to release a still of the "prototype". Cruel. Still, the legend of Fearless Photog lives on. And as for Nathan, he lives a "Photog Free" life with his wife and 3 dogs in North Carolina, working at a local hospital. Nathan has posted on a site of his own that he has since received Christ into his life, a statement that makes this author quite happy for him. And if you were to e- mail him today regarding anything pertaining to the "Fearless" one, you would most likely not receive a response, as I did not. I don't blame him a bit.

UPDATE 7/22/2011 : Mattel announced today at SDCC that a real Fearless Photog figure WILL be going on sale in January of 2012! Finally, after almost 30 years, Nathan Bitner's creation will make it into the hands of He- Fans the world over!

UPDATE 2/13/2012 : Nathan Bitner's Fearless Photog will be arriving to He-Fans this month, thanks to Mattel. Nathan himself has a 2 part interview posted on the He-Man.org website.