Evolution of a logo

Okay...I've said it before that logos really aren't my thing and I stand by that, BUT the creator of one of my current lettering jobs talked me into giving it a go for him. I figure it's probably okay to show this since the book has been picked up and I've seen him talking about it online here and there.

Anyway, on to the logo. This was the first attempt. At this point all I knew was "Revolutionary War" and "steampunk-ish" and that there was electricity involved. I went with a low tech metal look, made the dots over the eyes into little lightning bolts and put a parchment banner underneath. I was fairly happy with this one and think over all it's my personal favorite...but I'm not the customer. (All logos enlarge with a click)
I was informed that was all wrong and we were looking for a more superhero-esque logo. The circle of stars from the early US flag was requested as part of the logo. So, I thought, "Okay, let's imagine this was Captain America set in that time period..."
As far as a REALLY superhero-ey logo, I'm actually quite fond of that one but alas...it was not to be. There were some sports logos provided to give me an idea of SORT OF what we were looking for before the one above and the request was made to change colors more in line with one of them...
I believe the verdict on this one was that it was TOO much like some basketball logo or something...I don't do basketball, so I dunno. After more discussion and examples being sent we went with something that was designed to look good over a dark background (hence the white outlines) and by request I removed the little lightning bolts that dotted the I's and we wound up here...

This is pretty much the final logo, depending on the use, we switch the colors of the word PISTOLFIST and the banner, but other than that....that's it.

The book was created by JS Earls and will be coming out through ALIAS.